The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014

The RFCTLRR (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 came with a purpose to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Act, 2013. The LARR Act,2013 came into effect from 01.01.2014 but it was reported that many difficulties are being faced in its implementation.  Therefore, in order to remove them, certain amendments have been made in the Act to further strengthen the provisions and to protect the interests of the ‘affected families’. Amendments meet the twin objectives of farmer welfare; along with expeditiously meeting the strategic and developmental needs of the country i.e. it excluded Acts brought under RFCTLARR Act for Compensation and R&R and the second important aspect of the amendment is to make developmental and security related works much faster without compromising on the benefits/compensation to be given to the farmers. The Ordinance amends certain provisions which are as follows:

• The word ‘Private Company’ has been substituted by the word ‘Private entity’.
• Inserted Section 10 A which deals with power of appropriate Government to exempt certain projects.
• Inserted a proviso in Section 24 which states that

“Provided further that in computing the period referred to in this sub-section, any period or periods during which the proceedings for acquisition of the land were held up on account of any stay or injunction issued by any court or the period specified in the award of tribunal for taking possession or such period where possession has been taken but the compensation lying deposited in a court or in any account maintained for the purpose shall be excluded.”

• Section 87 substituted with the following section

“Where an offence under this Act has been committed by any person who is or was employed in the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, at the time of commission of such alleged offence, no court shall take cognizance of such offence except with the previous sanction of the appropriate government, in the manner provided in section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.”

• Section 105 (3) substituted with the following section

“The Provisions of this Act relating to the determination of compensation in accordance with the First Schedule, rehabilitation and resettlement in accordance with the Second Schedule and infrastructure amenities in accordance with the Third Schedule shall apply to enactments relating to the land acquisition specified in the Fourth Schedule with effect from 1^st January, 2015.

–          Ministry of Law & Justice