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Standing industrial unit cannot be acquired for industrialization: SC

The Supreme Court has scoffed at Haryana's land acquisition policy under which authorities had acquired a fully operational industrial unit and its land for setting up an industrial estate.

 A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana P Desai quashed acquisition of the land on which the industrial unit was functioning and said, "We are of the view that there is no justification in acquiring a running industrial unit for industrialization of the area."

 This happened at Kundli, a stone's throw from Delhi, where the authorities in 2005 acquired the land on which an industrial unit of VKM Katha Industries Ltd had been functioning since 1994. The unit was registered as a small-scale industrial unit with the director, industries department, Haryana, and was manufacturing kattha for various tobacco and non-tobacco products.

 On December 21, 2005, Haryana government's industries department issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for acquisition of certain land in Kundli and Sirsa villages for development of a industrial estate and the land belonging to the company was covered under the said notification.

 The company challenged the acquisition but the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed its writ petition on July 8, 2008. The company's counsel Guru Krishna argued that the industrial unit was running on the date of acquisition, hence it could not have been acquired by the government to set up an industrial estate.

 The company showed to the court that the construction at the site in question was of excellent quality and also pointed out that similar units running in the area were left out of the acquisition process.

 Justice Sathasivam, authoring the judgment for the bench, said, "On going through the materials placed, we are satisfied that the appellant-company has established that it is a running industrial unit even prior to the notification under the Land Acquisition Act."

 Though Haryana's additional advocate general Manjit Singh Dalal pointed out that the acquisition process was carried out in letter and spirit, the bench said, "In other words, even if the government or the authority concerned excludes the land of the appellant-company, there would not be any difficulty in executing the scheme."

 Article referred: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-21/india/41432732_1_land-acquisition-act-industrial-unit-acquisition-process

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