The Acquisition Procedure: Notification to Award: Complete Notes (Part C)

Chapter IV of the 2013 Act carries the acquisition from the preliminary notification to the Collector's award: publication, the transaction freeze, survey, objections, the parallel building of the R&R scheme, the declaration with its twin locks, measurement, notice, enquiry and award, all of it on a three-beat clock that lapses what the State delays. This consolidated note covers the whole procedure, corresponding to Topics 24 to 35 of this series.

1. The Preliminary Notification: Section 11

With Chapter II completed or lawfully exempted, and within twelve months of the Expert Group's appraisal (Section 14, extendable only by recorded, notified reasons), the preliminary notification issues through five channels: the Official Gazette, two local newspapers (one regional language), local-language display at the Panchayat or Municipality and the Collector's, SDM's and Tehsil offices, the Government website, and the affected areas, with the Gram Sabhas informed at a meeting called especially for the purpose. It must state the public purpose, the reasons necessitating displacement, a summary of the SIA report and the Administrator's particulars. From publication, no transaction or encumbrance on the specified land until the proceedings end (the Collector may exempt in special circumstances recorded in writing; wilful violators bear their own loss), the Collector must update the land records within two months, and the notification date becomes the valuation date for compensation.

2. Survey and Fieldwork: Sections 12 and 13

Authorised officers may enter, survey, take levels, dig or bore the sub-soil, set out boundaries and mark lines, clearing crop or fence where the survey requires, but entry into any building, enclosed court or garden attached to a dwelling-house needs consent or seven days' written notice. Damage done by the fieldwork is paid or tendered at the time of entry (Section 13), disputes going summarily to the Collector or the chief revenue officer. Survey entry passes no possession: it learns the land, nothing more.

3. Objections: Section 15

Any person interested may object within sixty days of the notification's publication, in writing to the Collector, with a hearing of right in person or by representative, on three enumerated grounds: the area and suitability of the land, the justification of the public purpose, and the findings of the SIA report. The Collector reports with recommendations; the appropriate Government's decision is final, administratively, with judicial review surviving for the unheard objection and the empty hearing. It is the 1894 Act's Section 5A rebuilt: double the window, enumerated grounds, a Chapter II record to argue from, and no urgency clause able to swallow it outside Section 40's narrow heads.

4. The R&R Scheme in Parallel: Sections 16 to 18

On the notification, the Administrator for R&R conducts the survey and census of affected families, lands and immovables, livelihoods lost, public utilities, amenities and common property resources, and drafts the R&R scheme with each family's entitlements, any resettlement area and a time limit for implementation. The draft gets wide publicity and a public hearing in the affected area (Gram Sabha consultation in Scheduled Areas per PESA), then travels through the Collector's review to the Commissioner for R&R for approval, and the approved scheme is published by the standard local-language, offices-and-website method. Its summary becomes a condition of the declaration, and its particulars become the Section 31 R&R award.

5. The Declaration: Section 19

After considering the Collector's report on objections, the appropriate Government declares the land needed for the public purpose, naming any resettlement area, under a Secretary's signature, published by the five-channel method. Two locks precede it: no declaration without the R&R scheme's summary published alongside, and none until the Requiring Body deposits toward the cost as prescribed. The declaration must issue within twelve months of the preliminary notification (extension only by recorded, notified reasons; court-stay periods excluded), failing which the notification is deemed rescinded. Once made, the declaration is conclusive evidence of the public purpose, subject to the fraud and colourability exceptions that conclusiveness has always carried, and parcel-wise declarations may issue from time to time within the period.

6. From Declaration to Award: Sections 20 to 23

• Marking and measuring (Section 20): the Collector causes the land to be marked out, measured and planned (approach roads included) unless already done; the measurement fixes the award's true area and the plan fixes the assets Section 29 will value.
• Notice (Section 21): public notice on the Collector's website and at the land, served on the occupier and known persons interested (post for those outside the district), requiring appearance between thirty days and six months from publication to state interests, compensation claims, R&R claims and measurement objections, in signed writing if required.
• Compelled statements (Section 22): the Collector may require any person to name every co-proprietor, sub-proprietor, mortgagee and tenant, with the nature of their interests and three years' rents, on penal sanction, the provision that protects the interests a title-holder might conceal.
• Enquiry and award (Section 23): the Collector enquires into the measurement objections, the land's value at the notification date, and the claimants' interests, and awards three things: the true area, the compensation determined under Section 27, and the apportionment among all persons interested, whether they appeared or not.

7. The Award's Discipline: Sections 25 and 33 to 37

The award must be made within twelve months of the declaration, failing which the entire proceedings lapse and any fresh attempt starts over at a new valuation date (Section 25, the successor of the 1894 Act's Section 11A; extension only by recorded, notified reasons). Around the award sit the housekeeping powers: clerical and arithmetical corrections within six months on notice (Section 33); adjournment for recorded cause (Section 34), always spending the Section 25 clock; civil court powers of summons, oath and document production for the enquiries (Section 35); and the Government's power to examine the record before the award for legality and propriety (Section 36), a power that dies when the award is born. Filed in the Collector's office, the award is final and conclusive between the Collector and the persons interested as to area, compensation and apportionment (Section 37), with immediate notice to those not present. Finality binds asymmetrically: the award is the State's own offer, absolute against the Collector and the Requiring Body, while the dissatisfied claimant takes payment under protest and requires the Section 64 reference to the LARR Authority, the civil court being barred by Section 63.

8. The Procedure at a Glance

9. The Topics of This Part

• Topic 24: The preliminary notification: Section 11
• Topic 25: Survey, entry powers and the transaction freeze
• Topic 26: Lapse of the SIA report: Section 14
• Topic 27: Hearing of objections: Section 15
• Topic 28: The R&R scheme: Sections 16 to 18
• Topic 29: The declaration and R&R summary: Section 19
• Topic 30: Marking, measuring and planning: Section 20
• Topic 31: Notice and compelled statements: Sections 21 and 22
• Topic 32: Enquiry and the award: Section 23
• Topic 33: The period for the award: Section 25
• Topic 34: Corrections, adjournments and enquiry powers: Sections 33 to 36
• Topic 35: Finality of awards: Section 37