Calcutta High Court directs West Bengal government to hand over land in 9 border districts to BSF for fencing

This comes after the court noted that a sizable portion of land had already been acquired or purchased and compensation received by the State, but had been only partially handed over to the BSF.

“The first category belongs to such lands, which have already been acquired/purchased and compensation amount has been received. This category of land needs to be handed over to the B.S.F. at the earliest,” the order read.

The court clarified that the reasons like the ongoing SIR procedure cannot be an impediment for expediting the procedure of hand over of the lands in nine districts.

“The S.I.R. procedure cannot, in our considered view, be an impediment for expediting this procedure and hand over these lands in 9 districts,” it observed.

Background

• The PIL highlighted the issue of large stretches of the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal remaining unfenced despite land acquisition and payment of compensation.
• The petitioner placed data showing a sharp rise in cross-border infiltration, narcotics smuggling, seizure of fake currency, cattle and gold, particularly in districts sharing the international border.
• It was submitted that the fencing of IBB is in national interest and is required to protect the integrity and sovereignty of the country.
• It was highlighted that in nine districts the amount of compensation have already been paid but the entire land was not handed over to the BSF to enable it to initiate and complete the fencing process.
• ASG submitted that in order to curb cross border terrorism, infiltration etc., it was necessary to issue directions to the state government to complete the aforesaid exercise expeditiously.

Findings

• We can categorise the present relief and matter into three broad categories.
• The first category relates to such pieces of lands, which have been acquired, compensation has already been received by the state government from the central government but only a partial portion of such land is handed over to BSF for fencing.
• The second category is of such pieces of lands for which acquisition/purchase proceedings have been commenced under the direct purchase policy but could not be finalised and is struck up at different stages including the stage, where it is pending approval before the state government.
• The third category is about the pieces of lands for which acquisition/purchase process is yet to start.
• A sizeable number of lands are acquired/purchased by the state government for which an amount of compensation has already been received by the state government from the central government.
• The first category belongs to such lands, which have already been acquired/purchased and compensation amount has been received. This category of land needs to be handed over to the BSF at the earliest.
• For the second category, the state government shall file an Action Taken Report (ATR) before the next date of hearing to show the steps taken for completing the purchase/acquisition proceedings.
• For the third category, the fresh acquisition, which will also depend on the applicability of Section 40 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, we deem it proper to take decision on this aspect after hearing the parties on the applicability and feasibility of invoking Section 40 of the Act.