The Andhra Pradesh High Court has ordered the Kakinada District Collector to reassess the compensation awarded to a landowner in the Ganganapalli village. According to LiveLaw, this directive ensures the farmer receives the same rate as other landowners who secured higher valuations through arbitration for the NH-216 highway alignment. The court’s decision resolves a dispute over the applicable legal framework for land acquired under the 1956 National Highways Act.
The original award, issued in 2016, classified the petitioner’s property as agricultural land, resulting in a lower per-acre valuation. Other landowners under the same notification later obtained enhanced compensation by having their land reclassified as non-agricultural. The petitioner, who had not initially sought this enhancement, approached the authorities through the Public Grievance Redressal System. The Joint Collector rejected the request, arguing that the petitioner had missed the prescribed limitation period from the original award date.
LiveLaw reported that Justice Subba Reddy Satti, presiding as a single judge, held that the right to claim parity is triggered by the enhancement of other landowners’ awards, not the initial acquisition. The court noted that the Central Government extended the 2013 Land Acquisition Act’s provisions to the National Highways Act via a 2015 order. This extension allows landowners to seek re-determination within three months of an enhanced award, a provision the court identified as being in pari materia with earlier land acquisition laws.
The bench observed that the Public Grievance Redressal System is an administrative tool and should not replace statutory proceedings. It found that the Joint Collector was not the proper authority to decide the claim, and that the District Collector should have handled the request. The court set aside the Joint Collector’s endorsement and directed the District Collector to re-determine the compensation within four weeks of receiving the order. The writ petition was allowed, with the petitioner represented by Mr. D. Seshasayana Reddy and the respondents by Government Pleaders.