Wayanad landslides: Kerala High Court upholds govt decision to take over land for townships for survivors

Kerala High Court upholds government decision to acquire land for Wayanad landslide survivors, ensuring fair compensation for petitioners.

The Kerala High Court on Friday (December 27, 2024) upheld the State government decision to take over a portion of the land in the possession of Harrisons Malayalam Limited and Elstone Tea Estate Limited for establishing new townships for rehabilitating Wayanad landslide survivors.

Justice Kauser Edappagath passed the verdict while disposing of the writ petitions filed by the estate companies challenging the government decision to acquire 65.41 acres from the land in the possession of Harrisons Malayalam Limited’s Nedumbala Estate in Vythiri and 78.73 acres from Elston Estate in Pulpara near the Kalpetta bypass.

The court ordered that the government is free to proceed to take over the properties for rehabilitation/reconstruction of landslide survivors in accordance with law.

The court also directed the State government to determine the total amount of compensation to be awarded to the petitioners for taking over the land in accordance with the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013. The compensation amount shall be paid to the petitioners before taking possession of the land with the petitioners executing a bond that in the event the titles of the properties are declared against them in the suits already filed by the State government, they shall refund the amount of compensation.

The court made it clear that the petitioners shall be entitled to pursue the statutory remedies available to them under the provisions of the LARR Act, 2013 for further enhancement of compensation if they are not satisfied with the compensation determined by the State government.

The court observed that the right of a State or sovereign to its own or his own property is absolute, while that of the subject or citizen to his property is only paramount. The citizen holds his property which is always subject to the right of the sovereign to take it for a public purpose. The decision of the government to take possession of the properties for the purpose of rehabilitating landslide victims is a public purpose.

Advocate General K. Gopalakrishna Kurup submitted that around 1,210 families who were rendered homeless as a result of the landslides are accommodated temporarily on rented premises, and thus, it was a very urgent and imminent necessity to rehabilitate them permanently as part of disaster management measures taken.