New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Union Government, States and Union Territories on a public interest litigation petition challenging the acquisition of cultivable land from farmers under the guise of "public purpose" for developing special economic zones (SEZs).

A Bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, issued the notice last week on the petition by the Karnataka Landless Farmers Association and four others, after hearing counsel D.K. Garg. It directed that this petition be tagged with a similar one, for which notice had been issued.

The petitioners questioned the constitutional validity of Sections 3 (f), 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 that authorised governments to acquire agricultural land for "public purpose" for builders, developers and industrialists denuding poor farmers and cultivators of their land and livelihood, forcing them to commit mass suicide.

They said that every year, poor farmers and landowners were deprived of lakhs of hectares of their land. A pre-Independence Act had become a tool for land mafias and grabbers to grab the land of poor farmers for economic gains.

Approvals to SEZs

The petitioners pointed out that till September 2006, the Board of Approvals Committee of the Commerce Ministry approved 267 SEZs and the area for each SEZ was in the range of 1,000-14,000 hectares. They provided figures of land acquisition to show how the provisions in the Act were being misused.

They regretted that every State was acquiring land to encourage private investment but failed to face the issues such as impoverishment, food security and the right to life with dignity.

Lack skills

The petitioners said "economic growth is required but not by impoverishing people. That is what is happening because most displaced persons who lack the skills required for industrial jobs and other benefits are impoverished to the benefit of another class."

They wanted the land acquisition provisions in the 1894 Act quashed and sought a direction to restrain the Centre and States against acquiring farmland.

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