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The Calcutta High Court ruled that tenants of private land acquired for the Joka-BBD Bag Metro corridor are entitled to compensation, even if landowners have already been paid. Justice Aniruddha Roy emphasized tenants' rights under Section 9 of the 1978 Act, which includes "any person interested in the land." The ruling stemmed from a land acquisition dispute near the Nepalese Consulate in Kolkata. The court upheld the acquisition, citing the public importance of the metro project while ensuring "just and appropriate compensation" for tenants. This decision reinforces tenant rights and highlights the complexities of balancing public infrastructure needs with legal entitlements.
The Calcutta High Court decided earlier this week that tenants of private land purchased for the Joka-BBD Bag Metro corridor are entitled to compensation, even if the owner has already been paid. This decision concerns a land purchase issue for the metro line's Mominpur (Ex) to Esplanade segment. Advertisement
The court acknowledged that the metro authorities had no other option for completing this important public project, thus it chose not to impede the acquisition process. Tenants of a property next to the Nepalese Consulate General in Kolkata had challenged the land purchase, which led to the litigation.
The tenants were entitled to "just and appropriate compensation" in line with the law, according to Justice Aniruddha Roy. He emphasised that the phrase "any person interested in the land" in Section 9 of the 1978 Act encompasses both current renters and landowners. This is consistent with earlier court decisions that cited this Act's provision to support tenants' rights to compensation in comparable land purchase instances.
For the purpose of rail alignment, the metro authorities had originally purchased a 105.3 square meter section of the Nepal Consulate's property. In 2020, a notification was sent, but the Consulate protested, claiming safety and security issues. The Consulate decided to trade some of its nearby land for the purchased property after consulting with the foreign ministry. Consequently, in 2022, the metro authorities acquired 532.6 square meters of land in a second acquisition.
Tenants were represented by senior counsel Gopal Chandra Ghosh, who contended that while the second acquisition was made to balance the land required by the Consulate, the initial acquisition was for a public purpose. However, senior counsel Jayanta Kumar Mitra, speaking on behalf of the metro officials, made it clear that the land acquisition was done for any associated projects in addition to the metro's construction.
Justice Roy emphasised that the metro project would not have been possible without purchasing and trading the land with the Consulate. He came to the conclusion that if the project hadn't been finished, the public interest would have suffered irreversibly.
This decision is consistent with earlier property acquisition decisions involving the metro area, where comparable legal issues surfaced, especially with regard to tenant compensation. Particularly, the Joka-BBD Bag Metro project has been involved in a number of land acquisition court cases, with earlier rulings upholding tenants' rights under Section 9 of the 1978 Act. In other cases, land conflicts involving foreign consulates or diplomatic properties necessitated delicate negotiations with the Ministry of External Affairs in order to strike a balance between security concerns and the requirements for public infrastructure.
The Calcutta High Court's decision emphasises how crucial it is to pay renters when private property is purchased for public uses, like building a metro line. The court reiterated that both landowners and tenants are legally entitled to compensation. The court stressed the importance of the land swap with the Consulate for the project's success even if it upheld the acquisition for the subway project. This decision continues a legal tradition of defending tenant rights and addressing the difficulties of land acquisitions involving foreign firms, reflecting the wider ramifications of striking a balance between the rights of those impacted by such projects and the need for public infrastructure.
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