Supreme Court Sets Aside This High Court Ruling Involving Irrigation Plan

The verdict came on an appeal of Executive Engineer of the Gosikhurd project against some landowners whose plots were sought to be acquired

The Supreme Court today set aside a judgment of the Bombay High Court which had annulled the acquisition of 203.86 hectares of land made in 2011 at a village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra for the Gosikhurd irrigation project.

The court, referring to an earlier judgment, said that the time period during which a judicial order would inhibit action on the part of the authorities to proceed with the making of the award in lieu of the land acquisition would be excluded while computing the period under the 2013 law on the land acquisition.

"The impugned judgment (of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court) setting aside the award and holding that the acquisition proceedings had lapsed is, accordingly, set aside. It is held that the acquisition proceedings had not lapsed and the award is legal and valid," said the bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna.

The verdict came on the appeal of the Executive Engineer, Gosikhurd project Ambadi, Bhandara against some landowners whose plots were sought to be acquired for the project by the government authorities.