Diluted retrospective clause in Jairam’s 153 land Bill changes

Among other things, Jairam also intends to change the nomenclature of the Bill to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012.

However, the cabinet appears to have retained Jairam's contentious proposal that provides for retrospective application of all land acquisition cases that are five years old or older, where either "possession of the land has not been taken" or the "compensation has not been paid" or "compensation has not been accepted by the individuals" or compensation "has been accepted under protest".

In these cases, the official amendments envisage that land acquisition proceedings initiated under the previous Act "shall be deemed to have lapsed", and would have to be initiated "afresh".

While the amendments do not clarify as to what will constitute "protest", it has added an explanation that if the compensation has been "credited in the bank account" of the land owner, the said person cannot claim to have accepted it under "protest" and seek recourse under the new Act.

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