Five-judge bench to hear land cases on March 6

New Delhi: A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will examine on March 6 the correctness in payment of fair compensation in land acquisition proceedings following a recent decision of three-judge bench over-ruling the decision rendered by another three-judge bench.

A bench of CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan will hear a batch of matters relating to land acquisition from Haryana and is expected to pass an interim order to prevent further chaos. Though this bench was expected to take up this issue on February 23, it could not be taken up on that day.

The CJI bench taking up the matter on March 6 virtually preempts a possible order by a bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Deepak Gupta to refer the issue to a large bench. As a result of this hearing, a batch of cases pertaining to land acquisition in Gujarat for development purposes will not be taken up on March 6.   

Dealing with a land acquisition appeal this bench, prima facie did not agree with the February 8 judgment of Justices Arun Mishra, A.K. Goel and M.M. Shantana-gouder after the flaws were pointed out by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi in the award of land acquisition compensation.