HC stays construction of residential projects in Noida

 
Express news service 

The Allahabad High Court today stayed the construction of multi-storey residential projects of nearly half-a-dozen private developers in sectors 75 and 120 of Noida, while hearing a petition alleging that the Noida Authority allotted land to private builders without formally acquiring it from the farmers.

The court has given two weeks time to the respondents to file their replies. The matter will come up for further hearing after three weeks. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice PKS Baghel said that the allegations made in the petition raised a question of law as to whether any public authority had the power to allot land to a third party without first acquiring it from the land owner.

The petition filed by Kalu, a farmer of Sarsabad village, through counsels Shiv Kant Tripathi and Amrita Rai, said that on April 7, 2011, a notification under Section 4 (indicating the intention of the Authority concerned to acquire land) of the Land Acquisition Act for 120 hectares in Sectors 75 and 120, falling in Sarsabad village, was issued.

Nearly six lakh square metres of land, which is roughly half of the total area for which the notification was issued, was allotted to different builders between 2010 and 2012 without the acquisition process being complete, said the petition.

"Our contention is that 17 months after the notice under Section 4 was issued, the acquisition process has not moved forward. Under the norms, the notice under Section 6 (pertaining to finalising the plots to be acquired) of the Act should have been issued within a year. Also, our main objection is land could not be allotted to private builders before it was acquired from farmers," said Mishra. He added that all the private developers involved have begun construction on the allotted land.

Source- The Indian Express