CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed the notifications of the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) and other connected authorities to acquire the land belonging to city-based Sri Venkateswara Educational and Charitable Trust, at Mathur village in Tiruvannamalai district. Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma, who quashed the notifications issued in July last year, also imposed a cost of ` 20,000 on the authorities concerned for unnecessarily harassing the trust management and violating the statutory provisions, rather than observing them, in acquiring the land. According to petitioner trust, the land in question was meant for starting Saraswathi (Ramadoss) Engineering College at Mathur village and all steps were taken for its establishment. While so, the government sought to acquire two acres and 47 cents of the Trust for SIPCOT expansion programme. The trust sent a representation raising objections. However, there was no response to the representation.Allowing the writ petition, the judge observed that the procedure adopted by the authorities concerned before issuing the notifications was totally contrary to the statutory requirements under Section 3 of the Land Acquisition Act. The notifications were vitiated for the reason that no order had been passed by the Tiruvannamalai district Collector rejecting the objections raised by the Trust. No material was also available on record to show that the government had considered the objections.
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