SUNIL AMBWANI,J. - (1.) HEARD Shri B.D. Mandhyan, Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Sanjeev Kumar; Shri Salil Kumar Rai, Shri Uma Nath Pandey; Smt. Sarita Shukla and others for the petitioners. Shri Satish Chaturvedi, Additional Advocate General assisted by Shri M.C. Chaturvedi, Chief Standing Counsel, Shri M.C. Tripathi, Additional Chief Standing Counsel and Shri J.N. Maurya, Standing Counsel have appeared for the State respondents. Shri Shashi Nandan, Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Ramendra Pratap Singh has appeared for 'Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority' (in short, 'YEIDA'). Shri Navin Sinha, Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Yashwant Varma has appeared for Jaypee Infratech Ltd.
(2.) IN these writ petitions, the land owners, bhumidhars, lessees and persons having variety of rights over the subject land, have challenged the notifications issued by the Government of U.P. under sub section (1) of Section 4, applying the provisions of sub section (1) of Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short, 'the Act) for acquisition of the notified land for public purpose namely for the, 'land for development', under 'Yamuna Expressway Project' through 'Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority'. The notifications have also recorded the opinion of the Governor that the provisions of sub section (1) of Section 17 of the Act are applicable to the land inasmuch as the land is urgently required for development, under 'Yamuna Expressway Project' through 'Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority' and it is necessary to eliminate the delay likely to be caused by an enquiry under Section 5A of the Act applying the provisions of sub section (4) of Section 17 of the Act. The notifications under sub section (1) of Section 4, were followed by the notifications declaring under Section 6 the satisfaction of the State Government for acquiring the land, for the same purpose with directions under Section 7 of the Act to the Collector of Agra to make orders for acquisition of the land and for taking possession under sub section (1) of Section 9 of the Act, on the expiry of 15 days from the date of publication of the notice, though no award under Section 11 has been made. The State Government has acquired 2500 hectares (25 million square meters) of land for development at five locations along the expressway, namely at Site -I: Noida (Sultanpur) (500 hectares); Site -II: between Greater Noida and Dankaur (500 hectares); Site -III:between Dankaur and proposed TEZ (500 hectares); Site IV: between proposed Airport and Tappal (500 hectares) and Site -V: near Agra (500 acres). The first three sites are situated in revenue district Gautam Budh Nagar; the Site -IV situated in revenue district Aligarh and the Site -V situated in revenue district Agra. The State Government took a decision for construction of Taj Expressway in the year 2001 towards east of Yamuna from New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) to Agra, and invited bids from interested parties for the project. The bid document was issued by the Taj Expressway Authority (TEA), now named as 'Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority' vide Notification dated 11.7.2008, setting up terms and conditions on which the contract was to be awarded. Para 1.1 relevant to introduction of the concept and the purpose of the project is quoted as below: - "The absence of a major highway on the eastern side of Yamuna in U.P. is resulting in longer travel time as well as inconvenience to road users. Considering this, U.P. Government is contemplating to provide an access -controlled expressway connecting New Delhi with Mathura and further Agra. The objectives of the proposed expressway are as follows: - (i) Provide a fast moving corridor to minimize the travel time; (ii) To connect the main townships/ commercial centres on the eastern side of Yamuna; (iii) To relieve NH -2 which is already congested and runs through the heart of cities like Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Palwal."
(3.) THE project included building of six lane access controlled high way to run over about 160 kms. The project was offered as a Joint Venture (JV) in which a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company was to be floated; alternatively bidder could take the project exclusively. The company undertaking the project was to put the entire money for the project with the rights to collect toll charges for a period of 36 years, on the rates to be notified by the State Government, under a 'Built Operate and Transfer' (BOT) Scheme. To compensate the company undertaking the project, a provision was made to have at five different places, one of which is to be in Noida or Greater Noida, subject to availability, 25 million sq. mtrs. of land along the express -way for commercial, amusement, industrial, institutional and residential complexes to be offered on lease for a period of 90 years, on the acquisition cost. The entire cost of acquisition was to be paid by the company undertaking the project.;