Metro Rail project gets a major relief in Supreme Court
Hyderabad, April.1 : Hyderabad Metro Rail project has got a major relief in Supreme Court yesterday in connection with the acquisition of certain properties in Nampally and other areas.
While land acquisition awards were passed by the Revenue authorities under the old Land Acquisition Act in the third week of December 2013, the owners of these properties approached the High Court that the awards were predated and that they should be paid compensation as per the new L.A. Act which came into force from January 2014.
Though the High Court observed that the awards were not predated and that they were correctly passed, it nevertheless asked the Government to pay compensation as per the new 2013 L.A. Act. Challenging the High Court order in the Supreme Court, HMRL and the Government of Telangana requested the Supreme Court to allow them to take possession of the affected properties as per compensation pattern under the old Act and assured the Supreme Court that they would pay compensation as per the final judgment of the Supreme Court regarding applicability of the old or the new L.A. Act.
Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar and Advocate General of Telangana K.Ramakrishna Reddy argued the case on behalf of Government of Telangana and HMRL.
After hearing their arguments and the assurance given by the Advocate General, the Supreme Court allowed the State Government to take possession of the affected properties and proceed with the Metro Rail project works, subject to payment of compensation as per the final judgment of Supreme Court. With this, the balance 11 affected properties in Nampally and Ameerpet will be taken possession and the Metro Rail works in these areas will be speeded up, stated MD, HMRL, NVS Reddy.
