Status quo in Greater Noida land acquired by Yamuna Expressway

Directing status quo,a division bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and Sunita Agarwal asked the state government and the YEIDA to file its reply within four weeks on a petition filed by Ballu Ram and others.

YEIDA had acquired 436.5 hectares of land in 2010 in Kherli Bhao village of Greater Noida. The land was acquired in the name of public purpose,and not for planned industrial development,as has been claimed in all the other cases of land acquisition. But it was given to builders for which we approached the court, said counsel for petitioners,Shiv Kant Mishra.

In another petition,filed by Gurusi and others,before the same bench,it has been alleged that the Noida Authority acquired 67 acres of land in Bahlolpur village in the name of planned industrial development and then changed its land use before handing it over to private builders. The court has asked the state government to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks in this case too, said Mishra,who is the counsel for petitioners in this case also.

Even as a three-judge bench had passed an order regarding land acquisition by Noida and Greater Noida authorities on October 21,disposing of nearly 500 petitions,many fresh petitions have been filed seeking redressal on similar set of grievances pertaining to land acquisition. The court had,in its order then,said nearly 500 more petitions were pending before different benches.