Supreme Court Order dt February 8th 2017 | Comments on the order from NBA, English |Comments on the order from NBA, Hindi
Delivering the verdict, the Bench of 3 judges, headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, and including Justice NV Ramanna and Justice DY Chandrachud, said that we have heard the matter for several days and with a view to ensure a just resettlement and rehabilitation claims of the project affected family, our are for speedy settlements of the claims of the PAFs of the Sardar Sarovar Project. According to the court the estimates of the numbers mentioned in this judgement are approximate. Apart from this, other affected families in these will also get the same benefit after proving their eligibility to the grievance redressal authority (GRA). In the tenth paragraph of the verdict, it has been said that this (Supreme Court package) order will be kept in mind in the payment of claims of all such project affected people. Before payment of the compensation, the affected people have to give written consent to complete their rehabilitation.
The Supreme Court, after taking a decision on the petition No. 328/2002 and under it other intervention petitions, ordered the payment of sixty lakh rupees (Supreme Court Package) to all 681 affected families, who till now, had not accepted any compensation and demanded land for land as per original NWDT and reaffirmed by the SC in its previous judgements. Not only this, the court also ordered 1,358 families to get 15 Lakh Rupees compensation, who under inducements from the officials-brokers had accepted part cash compensation and found themselves involved in the fraudulent and fake registry cases and ensuing corruption.
The order mentions that during the course of the hearing, the Attorney General, Mukul Rohatgi, argued on behalf of the Central Government, and requested the eligible beneficiaries of the land to fix the compensation at 45 lakh Rupees per family, but the Court accepted the plea of the NBA’s Counsel, advocate Sanjay Parikh, granting Rs 60 lakhs per family.
In these hearings on behalf of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, primarily, Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh argued the case, in which he was ably assisted by advocates Mr. Clifton D’Rozario, Ms. Nini Thomas and Ms. Moulashri. From time to time, Medha Patkar also appeared and argued on behalf of the Andolan over the years.
