UP farmers get justice at cost of urban flat buyers

Friday's Allahabad high court order quashing the acquisition of land by the Greater Noida Authority in Sahberi village of Gautam Budh Nagar district could affect several people who had booked apartments in projects located there.

The land in question is spread across 159 hectares. The number of projects and people that would be affected could not be ascertained, as there are several small builders developing projects on two to three acres each.

Realty firm Amrapali on Friday said about 1,200 home buyers of its housing project in Greater Noida have been affected because of denotification of around 159 hectares of land by the high court.

It plans to shift customers of the 'Smart City' project to some other projects at the same price.

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"About 15 acres of land in the 40-acre project has been affected due to high court order. This would affect about 1,200 flat owners. We have informed them that they will be shifted to some other projects," executive director Shiva Priya told PTI.

Amrapali said it would shift home buyers at the older rate of Rs 1,800 per sq ft, as against the current price of over Rs 2,000 per sq ft.

"We have 500 acres of land in area. So, there is no problem in shifting customers to other projects," Shiva Priya said.

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Illegal takeover

In its order, the high court denotified the entire land of Sahberi village for not giving the farmers an opportunity to file their protest at the land takeover, under section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act.

The Greater Noida Authority had notified the village land in June 2009 and took possession of it by making an entry in revenue records.

A Satya Pal Chaudhary and 20 affected farmers challenged the acquisition process and petitioned the high court against the 'arbitrary acquisition'. The high court clubbed the 21 cases and initiated legal proceedings.

After hearing both sides, the bench set aside the process of acquisition and declared the entire land of Sahberi village as denotified. In their judgment, the court observed the entire process of acquiring the land was illegal.

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Mahagun said its Mahagun Mywoods Phase I project did not fall in the said area. "Only some portion of land, which has been set apart for future development, might fall in the said area, but nothing has taken off yet there," it said.

Supertech said a part of its Eco Village project fell on this village land.

"Only seven acres of our 100-acre project was part of this village. We had not launched any buildings on this, as we did not get the possession," said a Supertech director.