Food security hit by land acquisition: SC

The judgment quoted the fifth and final report of the M S Swaminathan-led National Commission For Farmers to slam the acquisition of agricultural land with no thought for the availability of food for the future in a country where “60 per cent of the population still depend on agriculture and where people living below poverty line are finding it difficult to survive”.

Justice Singhvi quoted the “words of wisdom” spoken by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that “everything else can wait,but not agriculture” in this context.

The judgment also highlighted the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation against diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The court said both Nehru’s words and the Commission report seems to have become “irrelevant” for the government now.

“These words of wisdom appear to have become irrelevant for the state apparatus which has used the Land Acquisition Act,1894 in the last two decades for massive acquisition of agricultural land in different parts of the country,which has not only adversely impacted the farmers,but also generated huge litigation which consumes substantial time of the courts,” observed the Bench,also comprising Justice S J Mukhopadhyay.

Emergency clauses of land acquisition under the 1894 Act are used in a “very casual” manner by state governments,forcing the courts to nullify the acquisitions on the grounds that they are in violation of mandatory procedure and natural justice.

“It is difficult,if not impossible,to appreciate as to why the state and its instrumentalities resort to massive acquisition of land and that too without complying with the mandate of the statute (Land Acquisition Act,1894),” the Bench said.

The slew of litigation from farmers and landlords have clogged the courts,resulting in delay,the court said.