Supreme Court of India held Farmers entitled to the Highest Market Value as Compensation

The Supreme Court of India on 27 April 2012 held that Farmers whose land is acquired for a public purpose are entitled to the highest market value as compensation. The Supreme Court’s ruling came following a case of land acquisition in Punjab’s Faridkot district where the land owner was awarded a compensation of 1 lakh rupees per acre despite the land was located in commercially important area.

The Supreme Court bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and J. Chelameswar held that in the case When the land is being compulsorily acquired, the owner is entitled to the highest value which similar land in the locality is shown to have fetched in a bona fide transaction entered into between a willing purchaser and a willing seller near about the time of the acquisition.

Land Acquisition

Land acquisition has always been an issue of contention between the governments and the land owners. With the dawn of industrial economy in the country post economic reforms, the problem has got even worsened as the farmers in most of the cases were forced to sacrifice their land at lower price. Recent years have witnessed a string of cases when farmers have raised their voice against the forced acquisition of their land.

The land acquisition muddle of present India has its origin in  an old bill, the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 where prices per-acre of land has been fairly low. The law was made by british colonial rulers to facilitate the land acquisition from the farmers at the cheapest price.Post independence, the political parties in the country enjoyed a wider control over the land acquisition process in India. The bill is under the consideration of the parliament to bring out required amendments into it.