The Union Railway Ministry on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that since the Silverline semi-high-speed rail project was not a special railway project, the state government did not require any clearance from the Railways for survey, social impact study and land acquisition. . ,
The submissions were made when two writ petitions by James Alex and others from Kottayam challenging the demarcation of land boundaries for the project were filed by Justice N. came for hearing before Nagaresh.
The petitioners argued that as per Section 20A of the Railways Act, only the Central Government and its entities were empowered to issue notification for acquisition, survey, measurement and evaluation of land for a particular railway project.
Railway’s counsel submitted that, in fact, it had given in-principle approval for the project which was being implemented by Kerala Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (K-Rail), a joint venture company between the State Government and the Ministry of Railways. Is.
Railways had a 49% stake in the company. The counsel submitted that the State Government can proceed with the survey and acquisition proceedings for the project under the LARR Act (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Act), as the project was not specific as in It was considered under Railway Act.
The State Government submitted that the survey and demarcation of land boundaries was only preliminary work before land acquisition. Also, it was not a special project of the Railways. Therefore, the provisions of the Railway Act were not applicable while implementing the project.
The petitioners argued that the special project covers all railway projects including Silverline. Therefore, the Central Government itself was competent to issue notification for survey and proceedings for land acquisition. Powers under the Railways Act were not delegated to the State Government. Therefore, the orders issued by the state government for the survey and demarcation of land for the project were tantamount to usurping the powers of the central government.
The petitioners sought quashing of government orders and all proceedings initiated for survey and land acquisition. The court reserved its order on the petitions.