Land acquisition under the 2013 Act: application, public purpose, social impact assessment and food security

1. Background: from the 1894 Act to the 2013 Act

The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 allowed the Government to acquire land for a “public purpose” or for a company on payment of market value plus a 30 per cent solatium. It had no rehabilitation obligation, no study of who would be displaced, and the urgency clause (section 17) was used so often that hearings were routinely dispensed with. The 2013 Act repealed it (section 114), with transitional rules in section 24. Its long title states the aim: a humane, participative, informed and transparent process, in consultation with Panchayats and Gram Sabhas, with just and fair compensation and rehabilitation for affected families.

The Supreme Court has linked this procedure to Article 300A. In Kolkata Municipal Corporation v. Bimal Kumar Shah, 2024 INSC 435, it held that the “authority of law” in Article 300A is not satisfied by a bare power to acquire and compensate. It listed seven procedural sub-rights: notice, hearing of objections, a reasoned decision, acquisition only for a public purpose, fair compensation or restitution, an efficient and expeditious process, and a final conclusion of the proceedings. Earlier, in Vidya Devi v. State of Himachal Pradesh, 2020 INSC 23, (2020) 2 SCC 569, the Court held that the State cannot take private land without following due process and described the right to property as a human right as well as a constitutional one.

2. Application of the Act: section 2

Section 2(1) applies the provisions on acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation where the appropriate Government acquires land for its own use, hold and control (including for public sector undertakings) and for a public purpose. Section 3(za) defines “public purpose” as the activities listed in section 2(1). These are:

• strategic purposes relating to the armed forces, central paramilitary forces, national security, defence or State police;
• infrastructure projects, including items in the Government of India infrastructure list of 27 March 2012 (but excluding private hospitals, private educational institutions and private hotels), agro-processing and warehousing, industrial corridors and mining, water harvesting and sanitation, Government educational and research institutions, sports, health care, tourism, transport and space programmes;
• projects for project-affected families;
• housing for income groups specified by the Government;
• planned development or improvement of village sites or urban sites, and residential land for weaker sections;
• residential purposes for the poor, the landless, and persons affected by natural calamities or displaced by Government schemes.

Section 2(2) extends the Act to acquisition for public-private partnership projects (where ownership of the land stays with the Government) and for private companies, in both cases for a public purpose. Here a consent requirement applies: prior consent of at least 80 per cent of the affected families for a private company, and at least 70 per cent for a PPP project, counting land owners and assignees (sub-clauses (i) and (v) of section 3(c)). Consent is obtained along with the Social Impact Assessment. No land may be acquired in Scheduled Areas in breach of the land-transfer laws in force there. Section 2(3) applies the rehabilitation provisions where a private company buys land above the prescribed limit by private negotiation (read with section 46).

“Affected family” in section 3(c) is wider than “owner”. It covers land losers, landless agricultural labourers, tenants, share-croppers and artisans working in the area for three years before acquisition, forest-rights holders, those dependent on forests or water bodies, assignees of Government land, and urban residents of three years’ standing whose livelihood is affected.

3. The Social Impact Assessment: sections 4 to 8

Section 4. Whenever the appropriate Government intends to acquire land for a public purpose, it must consult the Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation at village or ward level and carry out a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study in consultation with them. The notification starting the SIA is published in the local language and on the website. The study must be completed within six months. Section 4(4) lists what it must assess:

• whether the proposed acquisition serves a public purpose;
• the number of affected families and of families likely to be displaced;
• the extent of public and private land, houses, settlements and common property affected;
• whether the area proposed is the absolute bare minimum needed;
• whether acquisition at an alternative place was considered and found not feasible;
• the social impacts, the cost of addressing them, and that cost weighed against the benefits of the project.

Section 4(5) lists the components to be studied: livelihoods, roads, drainage, drinking water, grazing land, schools, anganwadis, places of worship, burial grounds and the like. Section 4(6) requires a Social Impact Management Plan listing ameliorative measures, which cannot be less than what an existing Government scheme in the area already provides. Any Environment Impact Assessment runs at the same time.

Section 5 requires a public hearing in the affected area after adequate publicity, and the views of the affected families are recorded in the report. Section 6 requires the SIA report and the Management Plan to be published in the local language and on the website, and shared with the environment impact agency. Irrigation projects that already need an EIA under another law are excluded from the SIA provisions (proviso to section 6(2)).

Section 7 requires appraisal by an independent multi-disciplinary Expert Group: two non-official social scientists, two representatives of the Panchayat or Municipality, two rehabilitation experts and a technical expert on the subject of the project. Within two months it recommends either:

• that the project be abandoned, if it serves no public purpose or its social costs outweigh its benefits (if the Government proceeds anyway, it must record reasons); or
• if the project passes, whether the area proposed is the bare minimum and whether a less displacing option exists.

Section 8 requires the Government, before going further, to be satisfied that there is a legitimate and bona fide public purpose, that the benefits outweigh the social costs, that only the minimum area is taken, and that there is no previously acquired land lying unused in the area. For section 2(2) cases it must also confirm that the required consent has been obtained.

Section 9 allows the SIA to be dispensed with only where the urgency clause in section 40 is invoked. Section 14 treats the SIA report as lapsed if the preliminary notification is not issued within twelve months of the Expert Group’s appraisal, unless the Government extends the period by a recorded and published decision.

4. Food security: section 10

• Section 10(1): no irrigated multi-cropped land shall be acquired, except as provided in sub-section (2).
• Section 10(2): such land may be acquired only in exceptional circumstances, as a demonstrable last resort, and within aggregate limits for the district or State notified by the Government.
• Section 10(3): where it is acquired, an equivalent area of culturable wasteland must be developed for agriculture, or an amount equal to the value of the land deposited with the Government for investment in agriculture.
• Section 10(4): other agricultural land may be acquired only within notified limits of the total net sown area of the district or State.
• Proviso: the section does not apply to linear projects such as railways, highways, major district roads, irrigation canals and power lines.

5. The Karnataka amendment: section 10A

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Karnataka Amendment) Act, 2019 (Karnataka Act 16 of 2019, President’s assent 16 July 2019, published 23 July 2019) inserted Chapter III-A. Under the new section 10A the State Government may, in the public interest and by notification, exempt from Chapter II (SIA) and Chapter III (food security):

• projects vital to national security or defence, including defence production;
• infrastructure projects including educational institutions, hospitals, Government and local body offices, electrification, irrigation and drinking water projects;
• affordable housing and housing for the poor;
• industrial corridors set up by the State or its undertakings, up to the distance on either side of the designated railway line or road that the State specifies; and
• infrastructure projects including PPP projects where ownership of the land stays with the State.

Before notifying, the State must ensure that the extent of land is the minimum required. The same Act added a proviso to section 2(2) exempting section 10A projects from the 80 and 70 per cent consent requirement. Because the Bill was repugnant to the central Act on a concurrent subject (Entry 42, List III), it was reserved and received the President’s assent, so it prevails in Karnataka under Article 254(2).

How this is examined

The SIA is the most frequent Unit I essay: “Discuss the provisions relating to Social Impact Assessment” (January 2026, August 2024) and “Explain the importance of SIA” (August 2024, 100-mark paper; November 2021). Write sections 4 to 8 in order, then 9 and 14, and close with section 10A. “Explain the provisions relating to the application of the Act” (January 2026) and “salient features and scope” (August 2024) call for section 2, the consent rule and the definition of affected family. “Special provision to safeguard food security” (January 2026) and “public purpose” (August 2024) are set as 6-mark short notes; for the second, list the section 2(1) purposes and the excluded private hospitals, schools and hotels. “Development of land acquisition laws in India” (June 2025) uses section 1 of this note.