In Brief
Landowners challenged the acquisition of their land for a Western Dedicated Freight Corridor project under the Railways Act, 1989. The central issue was whether the Competent Authority properly complied with Section 20D(2), which mandates that objections to land acquisition must be decided by a reasoned order after a personal hearing. The Court found the Authority breached this mandatory provision by failing to pass a proper order on objections after the hearing and only keeping file notings without communicating any decision to the landowners. However, given that substantial work on the 131 km project was underway and only 6 km belonged to the appellants, the Court allowed their appeals but tempered relief by directing compensation based on current market value rather than quashing the entire acquisition, balancing individual property rights against the public purpose of the railway project.
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