While referring the Noida extension land acquisition issue to a larger bench, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave the Uttar Pradesh government and the agitating farmers a bonus period of 17 days to try and negotiate an out of court settlement.
The court order came in some 250 petitions that were clubbed as they involved hundreds of farmers spread across 10 villages where some 3,000 hectare of land was acquired by the Greater Noida Authority.
The petitioners had accused the Greater Noida Authority and the state government of arbitrarily bypassing the prescribed procedure for acquisition by unlawfully using an "urgency" clause, when the land in question was actually given away to builders and developers to build swanky residential complexes.
A division bench comprising Justice Amitabh Lala and Justice Ashok Srivastava said that the farmers and the administration were free to hold fresh negotiations and strike a deal, if possible by August 12.
"In case no settlement comes through by August 12, then the matter would heard by a larger bench with effect from August 17",
Alleging payment of very low compensation against their land, farmers claimed that even as their land was taken away at a throw away price, builders and developers were making huge profits by charging exorbitant rates from applicants.
They had taken the cue from a few recent orders of the court to return the acquired land to the farmer in certain other parts of Greater Noida.
There too the administration had applied the "urgency" clause to do away with the proceedings under section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act that entitles the land owner to raise his objections against the acquisition.
Meanwhile, an impleadment application moved jointly by a number of builders and developers who wanted to be heard by the court before it took any decision on the issue, was turned down by the High Court.
The order leaves in the lurch thousands of applicants, who had invested their lifetime savings in the housing projects.
