UT to go by MHA’s decision in land acquisition case

Seemingly displeased with the evasive stand of the Administration,the High Court has asked the Central government to file its response. Significantly,the High Court has directed the Central government to place on record the report prepared by Arun Ramanathan,IAS (retd),the inquiry officer,within a week.

Assistant Solicitor General of India,Dr Anmol Rattan Sidhu and Advocate Sanjay Joshi,senior standing counsel for Union of India have been asked to seek instructions from the Central government and file the response by October 12.

“A perusal of the short reply filed on behalf of Central government through the MHA reveal that in fact there is no divergence in the stand taken by the Chandigarh Administration and the Central government. The said reply does not indicate any contrary stand taken by the Centre. The aspect of the land acquisition in question being devoid of public purpose or being in violation of the law has not been considered by the MHA and neither has any such observation been forwarded to the Administration by the MHA to indicate that there is any infirmity in the acquisition of land in question,” reads the affidavit filed by Mehra.

“There is no reference to any conscious deliberation and consideration of the specific use of the legality or justification of the land acquisition proceedings by the MHA. The Administration would abide by any order/direction issued by the court”. The matter pertains to a bunch of petitions pending in the High Court with regard to acquisition of land made by the Administration.