High Court clears way to India's first High Speed Bullet Train project

Gandhinagar (Urban Transport News): The High Court of Gujarat on Wednesday has rejected the petition filed by a group of farmers challenging the land acquisition process for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed bullet train project on grounds of “inadequate” compensation. In their petitions, farmers had challenged the notification of state government for the acquisition of their land, contending that the State had no power to acquire land for a multi-State project.

Higher compensation

The High Court upheld the validity of the Land Acquisition Act, amended by the Gujarat government in 2016 and subsequently approved by the President of India. While rejecting the plea, the bench, however, has said the farmers to approach the government to seek higher compensation for their lands. The double bench of High Court comprising with Justice Anant Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav declined to entertain the petitions challenging the land acquisition for Country's first high-speed bullet train project.

Upholding the validity of the amendment in land acquisition act by the Gujarat Government in 2016 to the Central Government's Land Acquisition Act, the Bench noted that though the project is a multi-State, the Central Government had given its approval to Gujarat government to acquire land for it.

Retrospective effect

The High court has observed that the President of India has given assent to this delegation of power, with retrospective effect, to Gujarat government, hence it enjoys legal validity for undertaking the land acquisition process for the high-speed rail project. The court finds that the provision of not conducting social impact assessment under the amended Act does not fall into the category of “excessive delegation”, as challenged by the agitating farmers in their petitions.

In this regards, the court said that the social impact assessment process carried out as per the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) guidelines was appropriate and satisfactory. The Japan government through its Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is financing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project.

Over 5,000 farmers affected by the project

Sources said that more than 5,000 of the total 6,900 farmers affected by the bullet train project had registered objections to the land acquisition process initiated by the authorities. The farmers are now planning to challenge the High Court's order before the Supreme Court of India. They also insisted that compensation should be based on the current market value of the land. They are demanding that the nature of compensation should be aligned with the Central Government's land acquisition law, which incorporates the socio-economic impact of the project on the people affected by it.