The Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1967
Bare Act
(1) Notwithstanding any judgment, decree or order of any court to the contrary, -
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no acquisition of land made or purporting to have been made under the principal Act before the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 (1 of 1967), and no action taken or thing done (including any order made, agreement entered into, or notification published) in connection with such acquisition shall be deemed to be invalid or ever to have become invalid merely on the ground -
- that one or more Collectors have performed the functions of Collector under the principal Act in respect of the land covered by the same notification under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act;
- that one or more reports have been made under sub-section (2) of section 5A of the principal Act, whether in respect of the entire land, or different parcels thereof, covered by the same notification under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act;
- that one or more declarations have been made under section 6 of the principal Act in respect of different parcels of the land covered by the same notification under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act;
- any acquisition in pursuance of any notification published under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act before the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 (1 of 1967), may be made after such commencement and no such acquisition and no action taken or thing done (including any order made, agreement entered into, or notification published), whether before or after such commencement, in connection with such acquisition shall be deemed to be invalid merely on the ground referred to in clause (a) or any of them.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (b) of sub-section (1), no declaration under section 6 of the principal Act in respect of any land which has been notified before the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 (1 of 1967), under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act, shall be made after the expiry of two years from the commencement of the said Ordinance.
(3) Where acquisition of any particular land covered by a notification under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the principal Act, published before the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 (1 of 1967), is or has been made in pursuance of any declaration under section 6 of the principal Act, whether made before or after such commencement, and such declaration is or has been made after the expiry of three years from the date of publication of such notification, there shall be paid simple interest, calculated at the rate of six per centum per annum on the market value of such land, as determined under section 23 of the principal Act, from the date of expiry of the said period of three years to the date of tender of payment of compensation awarded by the Collector for the acquisition of such land:
- Provided that no such interest shall be payable for any period during which the proceedings for the acquisition of any land were held up on account of stay or injunction by order of a court;
- Provided further that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to the acquisition of any land where the amount of compensation has been paid to the persons interested before the commencement of this Act.
Simplified Act
(1) Despite any previous court decisions stating otherwise:
- Land acquisitions carried out or intended to be carried out before the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance of 1967 started, and any related actions or decisions, won't be considered invalid just because:
- more than one Collector was involved in the acquisition process for the same piece of land;
- there was more than one report made about the land, whether for all of it or different parts, under the same initial notification;
- there were multiple official announcements for different parts of the land under the same initial notification.
- Any land acquisitions following a notification published before the 1967 Ordinance can still happen after it started. These acquisitions and any related actions or decisions won't be considered invalid just because of the reasons mentioned in point (a) or any of them.
(2) Even though the above is true, no official announcement for land acquisition can be made after two years from when the 1967 Ordinance started if the land was already notified for acquisition before the Ordinance.
(3) If a particular land notified before the 1967 Ordinance is acquired following an official announcement, and this announcement was made after three years from the initial notification, interest at 6% per year should be paid on the land's market value. This interest is calculated from the end of the three-year period until the compensation is offered, but not for any time when the acquisition process was paused due to a court order. Also, this doesn't apply if compensation was already paid before this Act began.
Explanation using examples
Imagine a scenario where the government had initiated a land acquisition process for a highway expansion project before the enactment of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1967. During the acquisition process, multiple Collectors were involved in handling different sections of the same land parcel, and separate reports and declarations were made for different parts of the land.
Some landowners challenged the acquisition in court, arguing that the involvement of multiple Collectors and the fragmented reports and declarations invalidated the acquisition process.
However, Section 4 of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1967, retroactively validates the acquisition process, stating that such acquisitions shall not be deemed invalid on the grounds of multiple Collectors or fragmented reports and declarations. Therefore, the landowners' challenge would not succeed based on those grounds alone.
Additionally, if the declaration of acquisition was delayed beyond two years from the commencement of the 1967 Act, no further declarations could be made unless the acquisition was completed within that timeframe.
In another instance, if the acquisition process took more than three years from the notification date without payment of compensation, the landowners would be entitled to an interest of 6% per annum on the market value of the land from the end of the three-year period until the compensation was tendered, unless court orders had halted the process.
