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| Wednesday, 21 January 2004 |
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by Wasantha Ramanayake The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the State to pay Rs. 3.3 million as compensation and cost to 42 appellants in the appeal against land acquisition at Ihalagoda, Akmemana and Bandaragama areas to construct the Southern Express-way filed by residents. The Bench comprised Justices Mark Fernando PC, Ameer Ismail and C.V. Vigneswaran. According to the court order, the state was told to pay Rs. 75,000 each to 42 petitioners as compensation and Rs. 50,000 each as cost for the three petitions.The court ordered to reimburse the petitioners all the sums paid towards the expenses and fees of the judicial committee that conducted an inquiry in terms of the Court of Appeal order. Justice Mark Fernando PC delivered the unanimous judgment. The petitioners in three applications sought to set aside the Court of Appeal order that dismissed their writ application sought to quash the acquisition of their land. Petitioners alleged that RDA deviated from the approved track with regard to the Akmeemana area that of five kilometre stretch and 18 km stretch in Bandaragama area. The petitioners had been neither notified the alteration of the route nor given an opportunity to comment upon the alteration. The said alteration was not studied in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) nor supplementary EIA was done as required by law. Petitioners stated that the acquisition of their land was illegal. Petitioners further stated that the Court of Appeal appointed a committee comprising three Supreme Court Judges to look into the matter. The committee held that the supplementary EIA should be done in respect of the deviations, however, the Court of Appeal without properly considering the said report dismissed their applications. A. Sumanthiran with Viran Corea instructed by Samanthi Prasanthika Kumarasinghe appeared for 43 petitioners in Akmeemana area. D.S. Wijesinghe PC appeared for petitioner in Bandaragama area. DSG Ms. Bimba Thilakaratne appeared for respondents. |
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