'People Love Their Land Like Their Mother', State Must Fulfill Promise Of Rehabilitation, Employment After Acquisition: AP High Court

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has observed that in our society, land is loved like mothers, and the acquisition of land by the Government for public purposes upon an executive promise of compassionate employment to displaced persons or their family members makes the Government duty-bound to fulfil the same within reasonable time and without raising technicalities on flimsy grounds.A Division Bench of Justice Battu Devanand and Justice A. Hari Haranadha Sarma explained that while compassionate appointment for land displaced persons cannot be claimed as a matter of right, a Government scheme specifically formulated for rehabilitation and employment of a member of the uprooted family to ensure social security binds the State to implement the same in true letter and spirit. The Division Bench further stated,“The Governments itself framing the policies for providing jobs to the displaced persons whose lands were acquired for various public purposes, to ventilate the grievances and the hardships being faced by them with a laudable intention by making certain promises to those displaced persons. Then, it is the duty and responsibility of the State Authorities to fulfil the promises made in such policies without raising any technicalities or on flimsy grounds. What the State authorities have to consider is (1) whether the applicant is really displaced person or dependant of the displaced family or not? (2) Whether the candidate is eligible and suitable as per the respective schemes? Besides this, it is the duty and responsibility of the State Authorities to fulfil all promises made to the displaced persons within time frame to provide immediate rehabilitation to them to overcome from the hardships they have to face immediately after displacement from their lands.”The Court added,“In our society, no one can forget the attachment of people with their lands. Nobody, normally, will be ready to lose their lands, as they love it like their mother. But, when such lands are required for public purposes, though the owners of the lands are not agreeing to give their lands, Government is acquiring the lands as per Land Acquisition Act and the political executive is making several promises, like to provide employment to one member in the displaced persons family, as they are deprived of livelihood. If such promises are not fulfilled within reasonable time by raising technicalities and on flimsy grounds, the people loose trust on the State Executive. It makes them painful and then, it may leads to unrest. As such, State has to avoid such situations by implementing the rehabilitation schemes properly and promptly.”Facts:The observations were made in an appeal against an order of a Single Judge, whereby, the appellant State (respondent in the writ petition) was directed to consider the case of the respondents (petitioners in the writ petition) and accordingly consider their case of compassionate employment as per the Government scheme.The respondents were family members of displaced persons whose lands were acquired by the Government for construction of the Telugu Ganga Project in 1984, however, they were actually displaced in 2005. They sought compassionate appointment in light of a Government Order of 1986, through which the Government had formulated a scheme, whereby it promised rehabilitation to displaced persons or their dependents, whose lands were acquired. The 1986 GO specifically stated that 50% of the vacancies of categories equivalent to Junior Assistants/Typists and cadres below arising in Major & Medium Irrigation and Power Projects shall be occupied by displaced families or their dependents, and the candidates eligible for appointment shall be the displaced persons or their children or spouses on account of no other earning member in the family. However, while the GO of 1986 prescribed that applications for such employment must be filed within one year from the date of actual displacement, a Memo issued in 1987 relaxed the one-year condition.Although their names were included in a Master Eligibility List of 2009— from which many similarly displaced persons (even those placed below the respondents) were later appointed under the displaced persons category, the respondents' representation for compassionate appointment submitted in 2018 was rejected in 2019 by the Superintending Engineer (Appellant 2) on the ground that they had surpassed the cut-off date, which was stated to be 18.09.2006, and had also failed to submit requisite documents such as, original proof of award, no earning members in the family, financial status certificate, educational qualifications certificates, dependants certificates and so on.In 2019, the respondents filed a writ petition challenging the proceedings of Appellant 2 claiming that they were entitled to compassionate appointment under the GO of 1986. They also argued that the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal had previously passed orders in favour of similarly situated persons...

'People Love Their Land Like Their Mother', State Must Fulfill Promise Of Rehabilitation, Employment After Acquisition: AP High Court

Saahas Arora

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