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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 17, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the Airports Authority of India against a 2015 order by an additional district court directing enhanced compensation to landowners for selling their land for the expansion of Guwahati airport in Assam. In the 2015 order, the landowners' compensation was enhanced to INR 60,000 per katha from INR 20,000 per katha.

 

The case dates back to 1996 when the Airports Authority of India had acquired land adjacent to the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport. Subsequently, landowners said they did not get an opportunity to object to the acquisition proceedings.

 

The area collector had initially awarded INR 20,000 per katha to the landowners, taking the market value of the land to be INR 100,000 per bigha. In Assam's land measurement system, 144 square feet is equivalent to 1 lecha, 20 lechas make a katha, and 5 kathas make a bigha.

 

Dissatisfied with the compensation, the landowners had filed applications before the court alleging that the value of the land at the relevant point in time was INR 400,000 per bigha, amounting to INR 80,000 per katha.

 

The owners had said the acquired land was situated in a prime location near the market, schools, hospitals, airports authority office, an air force station, and various other institutions, and was in demand for various upliftment schemes of the central and state governments as it was free from flooding issues. The price of the land, they said, was rising continuously.

 

The airports authority had argued that the acquired land was low-lying, abandoned, barren agricultural land and it had spent a considerable sum of money to make it feasible for extension of the airport runway. The plea to increase compensation was not tenable as the state of development in the area was purely because of the work it had done, the authority said.

 

The authority challenged the district court's order before the Gauhati High Court. In January, the high court upheld the district court's order, following which the petitioner moved the top court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Nishant Maher

 

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