Madhya Pradesh High Court: Before the Court, a Public Interest Litigation was filed by Gram Sabha Kunda to challenge the land acquisition process initiated in the year 2011, for establishment of a Nuclear Power Project in District Mandla and writ petition for the same was filed after 6 years. The Court noticed that the award had also been passed for the same by Land Acquisition Officer on the ground that acquisition is contrary to law and Gram Sabha was not consulted for the same.
The petitioners also contended that the area acquired is notified as scheduled area. To this, the Court responded that if that was the case, the petition could have been filed earlier and slumber of the petitioner over the matter permitted the State Government and the Union of India to continue with establishment and construction of Nuclear Power Project. Because of the reason, the Court felt reluctant to interfere in the matter.
The writ petition was dismissed holding that the Gram Panchayat should have immediately approached the Court and as the public money was already invested in the project, it couldn’t be halted at this point of time. [Gram Panchayat Kunda v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 2017 SCC OnLine MP 315, decided on 01.03.2017]
