SC orders SIT probe into alleged corruption in land compensation in NOIDA-OxBig News Network

The Supreme Court has set up a three-member SIT headed by a senior IPS officer to probe allegations of corruption in grant of land acquisition compensation to some land owners by the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA).

The special investigation team (SIT) comprising Additional General of Police, Lucknow Zone S B Shiradkar, Inspector General CBCID Modak Rajesh D Rao and Commandant of UP Special Range Security Battalion Hemant Kutiyal will investigate if NOIDA officials paid excess land acquisition compensation to certain land owners.

A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh directed the SIT to probe if the quantum of compensation paid to the land owners was higher than they were entitled to in terms of the judgments passed by the courts from time to time; if so, who were the officers/officials responsible for such exorbitant payment.

Directing the SIT to find out if there was any collusion or connivance between the beneficiaries and officers/officials of NOIDA; and if the overall functioning of NOIDA lacks transparency, fairness and commitment to the cause of public interest, the Bench asked it to submit a report in a sealed cover in two months.

“However, no coercive or penal action shall be taken against the landowners/farmers without prior permission of this court,” the top court ordered.

The Bench passed the order on Thursday while hearing the anticipatory bail pleas of the legal advisor and one of the law officers of NOIDA who were accused of corruption.

The Bench – which was apparently was dissatisfied with a UP government-appointed panel probing the issue of illegal compensation to land owners paid by NOIDA officials – noted that the allegations related to the release of huge amounts of compensation in favour of some landowners, who were allegedly not entitled to seek such a higher compensation for their acquired land.

It said the SIT was free to look into any other allied issue during the investigation.

On October 5, 2023, the state government had told the top court that it had constituted a fact-finding committee comprising three officers, including the additional director general of police, Meerut Zone, to examine the cases where NOIDA might have paid illegal compensation in collusion and connivance with the officers of the authority and the beneficiaries.

However, the top court said, “Keeping in view the limited mandate given to that committee and the manner in which the proceedings were conducted, we were not satisfied with its outcome, especially when it was brought to our notice on November 22, 2023 that under the garb of investigation, the committee was trying to question the grant of higher compensation to the landowners under the court orders.”

The bench went on, “It was made clear that the committee had no authority whatsoever to sit over the judicial orders and deviate from the real issue re: conduct, functioning, propriety and probity in the functioning of NOIDA officers.”

The Bench had earlier asked the state government to suggest a few names for the SIT, comprising senior IPS officers of UP cadre, who did not belong to the state, for transparency, fairness and objectivity in the matter of investigation into the affairs of NOIDA.