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NEW DELHI: Already facing a fiscal crisis, Tamil Nadu Monday found itself in a difficult situation when Supreme Court ordered it to either return 970 acres of land it had acquired in 2009-10 for establishment of industries or pay compensation to landowners at the market rate as of January 1, 2014.Appearing for State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT), senior advocates A M Singhvi and Prashanto Sen told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that government is ready to pay Rs 21 crore as per the earlier procedure. However, senior advocate Arvind Nayar, appearing for a landowner’s trust, said though the acquisition process began in 2009-10, no award was passed, thereby rendering the process incomplete.Nayar said Tamil Nadu government has been sitting on the land for nearly two decades and not paid a penny as compensation to landowners. “The Madras HC found that since the central law on payment of compensation for acquisition of land had come into force, the cutoff date would be Jan 1, 2014.” Singhvi said if Jan 1, 2014, was made the cutoff date, the compensation amount would increase from Rs 21 crore to more than Rs 180 crore and impose a heavy burden on the state’s finances.But Supreme Court said, “When you acquire land, you must be prepared to pay adequate compensation to the landowners. Why should they suffer because of government’s inaction? You wanted land for industries, so you pay compensation at market rate.”Singhvi then requested Supreme Court to limit the relief of higher compensation to the 10 petitioners who had approached the court. But the bench said if the state finds it difficult to pay compensation as directed, it would have to return the land to owners in six weeks.
