'Yamuna Expressway A Vital Heartline' : Supreme Court Upholds Land Acquisition For Yamuna Expressway Invoking Urgency Clause

The Supreme Court today upheld the land acquisition proceedings commenced under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority project in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. In Kamal Sharma's case, the High Court referred to the Supreme Court's case of Nand Kishore Gupta and Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others where the Court observed that if there exists sufficient material that the acquisition was done for an integrated development then the State's power to invoke Section 5-A to dispense with the inquiry cannot be challenged. A project of such magnitude and enormity would definitely require the involvement of the adjoining areas which would lead to an overall development of the State of Uttar Pradesh at large.” The Court held the High Court's decision in Shyoraj Singh's case to be per incuriam because it didn't consider the ratio of the previous decision where the Division Bench of the High Court already affirmed the validity of invocation of the urgency clause in the land acquisition notifications for the integrated development plan of 'Yamuna Expressway' by respondent No.3-YEIDA, and the challenge to the three decision via SLP resulted into dismissal. Accordingly, the Court justified the State's invocation of Section 5-A for land acquisition for an integrated development plan of the Yamuna Expressway initiated by the YEIDA.