The Research Problem

The researcher has undertaken a detailed study about the the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 to
identify the grey areas in the law and explore the issues and to make a comparative analysis of
the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 with that of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and to offer solutions to address the
issues involved in land acquisition.

In the light of above, the following problems and issues arises for in-depth study and it is very
much necessary to find out the appropriate solutions to address the same.

1. Whether compensation given by the State is adequate or not?

2. What are the measures need to be taken while computing the compensation under the Act?

3. Whether Government has the sole authority to decide ‘public purpose’ for acquisition of a land
or it is determined by someone else?

4. How Land Acquisition Act, 1894 has been found to be inadequate and how far the Right to
Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act,
2013 upholds the social justice in the present scenario?

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this research are:

1. To analyse the need and relevance of land acquisition in India.

2. To probe into the effectiveness of the legal mechanism for land acquisition

3. To analyse the constitutional provisions in the light of Land Acquisition Act.

4. To discuss some important land acquisition cases which have been decided by

the Judiciary?

5. To examine the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land

Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act while comparing with

Colonial Land Acquisition Act in the present context of welfare state.

6. To offer appropriate solutions to address the problems related to land

acquisition and to make the law more effective people friendly.

Hypothesis

Researcher has formulated the following hypothesis for the study:

1. The power vested with the State to acquire land for the public purpose is being misused.

2. State has completely failed to promote the social justice though it has acquired the private land
for public purpose.

3. The compensation to be paid to the land owners in case of acquisition is not realistic and
rational.

4. The judiciary has played a pivotal role in evolving new principles with regard to acquisition of
land and related compensation and rendered justice to the people.

5. The new land acquisition law needs to be enforced effectively to address the problems
pertaining to land acquisition; compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement etc. to render justice
to the affected and further it shall be fined tuned with respect to certain aspects.

Research Methodology

The present research work is of doctrinal in nature. Authoritative judgments of the Supreme
Court, High Courts and the Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD), reports, statutory and
authenticated text books have been referred. Further, various legal research articles of national
and international journals have been referred to find out and analyse the issues relating to
acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation and resettlement and surplus acquired land under
the Act. The relevant information has also been collected through internet sources.

Sources of Data Collection

The study is made basically relaying upon both primary and secondary sources. In the primary
source such as Constitution of India, cases decided by the Court of law, statutes, rules,
regulations, legislative policies, orders, notifications etc. have been collected and as secondary
sources like authoritative books, research articles in reputed journals, newspapers, internet
websites and reports etc. have been collected and referred.