Land acquisitions for public purposes are often caught in prolonged legal battles as the court found in the recent case, Pratibha Nema vs State of MP, where a diamond park scheme was delayed for years.
The court then asked the authorities to follow the acquisition rules strictly to avoid such delays, which discourage investors. That was a case where powerful landlords could pick legal holes in the procedure.
Now, the Supreme Court has delivered a judgement in which the acquiring authorities bulldozed the rights of the poor and the illiterate in their enthusiasm to speed up an industrial project. The result was the same
