MEGHALAYA:
A fresh inquiry has been directed to be conducted by the District Judge, Ri Bhoi, to ascertain whether any overpayment was made to any of the land losers in regard to land acquisition for the expansion of the Umroi airport.
The inquiry was as per an order passed by the Meghalaya High Court on February 21.
The court had initiated the inquiry presided over by the then District Judge, Ri Bhoi, pursuant to a direction issued by the Supreme Court.
The object of the exercise was to ascertain if, and to what extent, land losers had been overpaid for the additional land that was acquired for the expansion of the airport.
The District Judge’s report was taken up for consideration on the judicial side and it was discovered that not only did it not indicate whether any excess payment has been received by the land losers, but there was also no attempt at assessing the quantum.
Following the fresh inquiry, a public interest litigation was filed by one Steid Dkhar for being able to inspect the original documents pertaining to the acquisition of land for the expansion of Umroi airport.
The court in its order said that it is only fair that if any document is relied upon, in course of a fact-finding exercise, to find any wrongdoing by any person, such person must be afforded an opportunity to inspect the documents and accept or dispute the veracity thereof, including the contents.
“As such, the prayer is allowed by directing the Registrar-General of this Court to hand over all documents pertaining to the matter to the present District Judge, Ri-Bhoi upon making an inventory thereof and retaining a copy of the inventory list,” it said while directing that such exercise should be completed in course of next week.
“Immediately upon receipt of the entire set of original documents, it will be open to the District Judge, Ri-Bhoi, conducting the fact-finding exercise to allow the parties to inspect the same and even obtain copies thereof if deemed necessary,” the court said.
Disposing of the litigation, the court also maintained that “It is recorded that nothing in this order will stand in the way of the District Judge exercising appropriate discretion in the matter and ensuring that the exercise is completed without undue delay.”