‘Concerted fraud’: Gujarat HC cancels acquisition of ‘additional land’ for Ahmedabad–Dholera Expressway
Says land owners and officials of NHAI and Collector office, Ahmedabad, colluded to siphon off public money in a concerted manner, orders high-level inquiries.
The private petitioners sought a writ to compel disbursement of this additional compensation, while NHAI eventually challenged the resurvey and NA conversion. (File Photo/ Representative)
A flipped map, a lightning-fast non-agricultural conversion, and a land sale completed in days — what looked like routine paperwork slowly unravelled into a high-stakes land puzzle, one that the Gujarat High Court would later call a “concerted fraud” on public money.
Finding that private landowners and government authorities, including officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), “colluded to siphon off the public money in a concerted manner”, the High Court cancelled the acquisition of ‘additional land’ for the Ahmedabad–Dholera Expressway and directed the Chairman, NHAI, to initiate fresh, high-level inquiries into the conduct of erring officials.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice D N Ray of the Gujarat High Court were hearing petitions filed by two private purchasers of the contentious lands, who had sought release of NHAI compensation for the ‘additional land’, subsequently acquired by the highway authority as well as a petition filed by the NHAI alleging a coordinated fraud involving landowners and officials.
The case pertains to lands, located in village Bholad of Dholka taluka in Ahmedabad district, measuring 21,314 sq metres across two contiguous plots bearing survey no. 785, owned by Raghavjibhai Devjibhai and Survey No. 786, owned by Karsanbhai Patel, which was acquired by the NHAI for the Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway via notifications in 2018 and 2020. The NHAI also awarded the compensation to the land owners.
After the acquisition, the original owners applied to the District Inspector of Land Records (DILR) for remeasurement of the land, in which the DILR allegedly “flipped the geographical locations and boundaries of the two plots in the village map”, the court judgment notes. Taking advantage of this, the original owners obtained a non-agricultural (NA) conversion for a purported “remaining” area of the land from the district collector within 12 days and sold it to private petitioners.
The court judgment notes that “an outcome of mala fide exercise conducted on the part of the officers of the NHAI in collusion with the purchasers” was that the NHAI initiated fresh acquisition proceedings for the same land — now labeled as “additional land” at significantly higher NA rates. The private petitioners sought a writ to compel disbursement of this additional compensation, while NHAI eventually challenged the resurvey and NA conversion.
In its 83-page judgment made available on April 24, the High Court states, “This court categorically recorded that the case presents a glaring picture of collusive acts of Collector office and the Project Implementation Unit of the NHAI with the original owners and occupiers… and the subsequent purchasers… and they (NHAI officials) all have colluded to siphon off the public money in a concerted manner which has resulted in issuance of two subsequent notifications by the Central Government on the premise of requirement of acquisition of additional area… which was actually not available on the date of submission of the proposals dated June 23, 2022 and November 9, 2023 by the NHAI.”’
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The court also recorded the statement of the advocate appearing for the NHAI, that the authority “had identified its erring officials posted in the Project Implementation Unit, Ahmedabad, at the relevant point of time, who have been found involved in the entire illegal exercise of making the proposals to issue acquisition notifications of the land which was not available.”
The court judgment notes that the additional compensation of Rs 13.91 crore that was to be disbursed for the non-existent “additional land” was deposited by the office of the Special Land Acquisition Officer on November 18, 2024, and the said amount had “not been disbursed to the land holders on account of the disputes brought to the knowledge of the higher officials.”
Recording that the Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue, did not take care to examine the entire original record of the conversion of the land to non-agricultural by the office of the Collector, who had “completed in a hurried manner…within a period of 12 days without verification of the status of the available land…”, the court directed that this judgment be “placed before the Chief Secretary of the State and the Advocate General for their information by the office of the Registrar General of the High Court.”
The judgment, while quashing the NHAI acquisition notifications for the additional areas of both lands as well as the the exercise of resurvey of land and all consequential maps and actions flowing from such resurvey and the February 2022 order of the District Collector, Ahmedabad, in converting the lands for NA use, stated that the order was “illegal and suffering from vice of mala fide exercise of powers”.
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Directing that the compensation amount deposited must be returned and the NHAI must obtain possession of 21,314 square meters of land, the judgment states, “The compensation amount deposited with the competent authority/Land Acquisition Officer for the cancelled notifications shall be refunded back to the NHAI immediately… (The orders are) hereby quashed, found to be the result of a fraudulent exercise conducted in collusion with the officers of the NHAI, office of the DILR/Collector, Ahmedabad, and the erstwhile land owners, as also the petitioners herein.”
Aditi Raja is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, stationed in Vadodara, Gujarat, with over 20 years in the field. She has been reporting from the region of Central Gujarat and Narmada district for this newspaper since 2013, which establishes her as a highly Authoritative and Trustworthy source on regional politics, administration, and critical socio-economic and environmental issues.
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