Hyderabad: A negotiated land sale does not erase a landowner’s right to separate rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) benefits, the Telangana High Court has ruled, setting aside the state’s claim that accepting compensation and signing a registered sale deed closes off further entitlement.
The order came from Justice Vakiti Ramakrishna Reddy, who allowed four writ petitions filed by landowners from Thoguta and Rampur villages in Thoguta mandal whose farmland was taken over for the Komuravelli Mallannasagar reservoir.
The judge directed authorities to examine the petitioners’ R&R claims independently of the compensation already disbursed, and said each petitioner’s eligibility must be decided by the competent authority only after an inquiry and a hearing.
The dispute traced back to Government Order (GO) 123, issued on July 30, 2015, under which the state acquired land from “willing” sellers through negotiated settlements rather than compulsory acquisition under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The petitioners’ land was purchased and registered between August and October 2016.
The state’s position was that these were voluntary sales, not compulsory acquisitions, and that the landowners had signed taskspromising not to seek any further compensation or benefits. Officials argued this meant the petitioners were estopped from making additional monetary claims.
Justice Reddy did not accept this. He pointed out that GO 214, issued on November 28, 2015, had amended the original GO 123 formula to remove the R&R component from the compensation altogether, a change that came before the petitioners signed their sale deeds. This meant, the judge held, that the money they received could not be treated as a combined payment already covering R&R.
The ruling also drew on Act 21 of 2017, which amended the 2013 central law for Telangana. That amendment received Presidential assent in May 2017 and was made retrospective to June 2, 2014, adding Sections 30-A and 31-A to the Act. Under this framework, the state notified the Telangana Land Acquisition (Consent Award, Voluntary Acquisition and Lump Sum Payment towards Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Rules, 2017, through GO 120 dated June 30, 2017.
According to Justice Reddy, this legal architecture itself reflected an intent to extend R&R benefits even to landowners who enter consent-based or negotiated deals, the title of the 2017 rules, he noted, rests on the premise that voluntarily giving up land for a public project does not by itself cancel out R&R entitlements.
The court held that because R&R provisions form part of a beneficial law meant to protect displaced families, such statutory benefits cannot be readily waived. Citing Supreme Court precedent on waiver and public policy, the judge said benefits grounded in public interest cannot simply be contracted away.
