HC orders compensation for Tuli land used for Amguri-Tuli railway line

The Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court has ordered the authorities to formally acquire eight acres of land at Tuli in Mokokchung district that was used for the Amguri-Tuli railway line, and to pay the owner compensation with 12% annual interest, The Morung Express reported on Sunday.

In a judgment dated November 3, Justice Robin Phukan held that the authorities had not shown that the land was ever lawfully acquired or that the owner was paid for it. The court gave them three months from receipt of a certified copy of the judgment to finish the process.

A line built on unpaid land

Work on the Amguri-Tuli railway line began in 1983 and was completed in the 1990s. According to the judgment, railway tracks, the station and staff quarters were built on the petitioner's land. The petitioner said the only payment ever received was Rs 11,950 in 1992 for damage to standing crops, and nothing for the land itself.

The Railways told the court that two sums, Rs 1,53,675 and Rs 1,57,000, had been paid in connection with the acquisition. The court noted that no records were produced to show that either amount reached the petitioner. The Nagaland government, in its affidavit, stated plainly that neither the Railways nor the state had paid compensation, and a 2022 letter from the then Additional Deputy Commissioner of Tuli backed this up.

Delay no bar, says court

The Railways also argued that the claim came too late, since the owner approached the court decades after the line was built. The court rejected this, holding that taking land without due process and without paying for it was a continuing wrong.

Citing Article 300A of the Constitution, which says no one can be deprived of property except by authority of law, the court directed the authorities to acquire the land under the Nagaland Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1965, assess the compensation due, and pay it with 12% annual interest counted from the date possession was taken.

Dimapur land dispute sent to civil court

In a separate case, a Division Bench of Justices N Unni Krishnan Nair and Nchumbemo Mozhui, in a judgment dated November 5, set aside an earlier ruling on disputed land at Purana Bazar 'B' village in Dimapur. One side relied on a patta issued by the district revenue authorities and the other on allotment records from the village council. The Bench said the competing claims raised serious questions of title that only a civil court could decide, and ordered both sides to maintain the status quo until then.