‘Govt cannot force landowners to execute sale deeds for acquisitions’

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that government authorities cannot force private landowners to execute sale deeds for the acquisition of land.

The Lucknow bench of the court said on Friday that land can be purchased through a sale deed only when the owner voluntarily agrees to sell and both sides mutually agree on the sale price and if no such consent is forthcoming, the state government will have to follow the statutory land acquisition procedure. With this, the court directed the authorities not to harass the petitioners or forcibly obtain their consent for executing sale deeds. It also made it clear that voluntary sale and compulsory acquisition are two distinct legal processes. A bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary passed the order on a petition filed by Akhilesh Kumar Pankaj and seven others concerning acquisition of their land in Devipatan Tulsipur village of Balrampur district for road widening. The state government told the court that the land was being purchased for widening the road. Nearly 80 per cent of the required land had already been purchased through sale deeds, with around 104 registrations executed by different landowners. However, the authorities had not been able to contact the petitioners or obtain their consent for the purchase of their land. The petitioners, on the other hand, submitted that they were not willing to sell their land. They alleged that the authorities were pressuring them to sell their property at a rate which was unacceptable to them.

After considering the issue, the bench observed that the law on the issue was clear and hence, if the landowners were willing to sell and the state was able to negotiate and arrive at an agreement on the sale price, they could sell the property to the state. However, in the absence of such consent, the state would have to issue a notification under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and acquire the land in accordance with law, the bench added. The court directed the authorities not to harass the petitioners or forcibly obtain their consent for execution of sale deeds. It clarified that if any petitioner voluntarily wished to sell the property, a sale deed could be executed in accordance with law.