In Brief
The Supreme Court partially allowed appeals by the Union of India and NHAI against a Madras High Court judgment quashing notifications under the National Highways Act, 1956 for acquisition of land to construct an 8-lane national highway between Chennai-Krishnagiri-Salem. The Court upheld the Central Government's legislative and executive competence to declare greenfield land as a national highway and held that prior environmental and forest clearances are not required before issuing acquisition notifications under Section 3A, but only before actual construction work. The Court rejected challenges to the decision to substitute the original project stretch, finding it a valid policy choice within the competent authority's discretion. However, it upheld the direction to restore revenue records to original owners until final acquisition. The Court clarified that time spent obtaining environmental clearances would be excluded from the one-year acquisition timeline.
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