Government Acquisition of Tribal Land for Development Purposes – A Legal Critique
Keywords:
Eminent domain, Tribal land acquisition, right to life, compensation, samatha vs state of A.PAbstract
Earth’s resources are limited, and when one faction of society obtains resources for itself, it only
logically follows that another faction is simultaneously deprived of those resources. In the case of
indigenous and tribal people, every resource stems from the land that they live on. Without that land,
they have no life. And yet, the demands of our ever-growing modern world ignore this fact and
continue to deprive them of their livelihood. In such a situation where the actions of society
jeopardize the life of others, one would expect the law to intervene and ensure justice. In the following
paper, we seek to answer this very basic question: What has the law done to protect indigenous land
rights? To answer this question, we take a look at Indian legislations designed to protect land rights,
and then move on to scrutinising how the higher judiciary has applied these statutes. To contrast the
stance taken by the Indian judiciary, this paper then takes the example of a few judgements delivered
outside India. The central argument through the bulk of this paper is that the Indian Judiciary has
been inconsistent in protecting tribal land right and needs to change its outlook on the issue in order
to make progress.
References
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6. Ibid, Section 4, 44.
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10. Ibid, para 42.
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