Supreme Court clears acquisition of land for Chennai airport

The Supreme Court on Tuesday paved the way for expansion of the Chennai airport by dismissing a special leave petition challenging the proceedings initiated by the Tamil Nadu government for acquisition of about 1,070 acres of land for this purpose.

A Bench of Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice L.S. Panta dismissed the special leave petition at the admission stage after hearing senior counsel L. Nageswara Rao for the petitioner, Marco Marvel Projects Ltd, Additional Solicitor General R. Mohan for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina for the Tamil Nadu government.

The special leave petition was against a Madras High Court judgment dated March 27 upholding the acquisition proceedings. The Bench declined to interfere with the impugned judgment.

The petitioner said it was promoting residential townships on 7.08 acres in the Sriperumbudur taluk and this land was sought to be acquired for the airport project.

It contended that the State government lacked competence to acquire the land, as only the Centre was competent to acquire lands on behalf of the Airports Authority of India.

The petitioner submitted that even if the acquisition could be made by the State government, it could not be done under the Tamil Nadu Acquisition Act, as the airport was neither an industrial area nor an industry for the purposes of the Act for which acquisition could be made. Lands could be acquired only under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, it said.

Further, the State government had no power to acquire the land for rehabilitation of the projected affected persons under the TNA Act.

Environmental clearance was mandatory for the proposed project and the same ought to have been obtained before the acquisition proceedings were initiated.