SC sets up SIT to probe ‘overall functioning’ of NOIDA, compensation paid to landowners

The SC has also directed to probe if there was “any collusion or connivance between the beneficiaries and officers/officials of NOIDA…and….whether the overall functioning of NOIDA lacks transparency”.

“The SIT shall be free to look into any other allied issue that may arise for its consideration during the course of the investigation,” added the bench.

The SIT comprises S B Shiradkar, Additional General of Police, Lucknow Zone; Modak Rajesh D Rao, IG, CBCID, Lucknow; and Hemant Kutiyal, Commandant, Uttar Pradesh, Special Range as Security Battalion, Gautam Buddha Nagar. All three are IPS officers of the UP cadre but do not belong to the state. The case against the law officer and some landowners was registered at Gautam Buddha Nagar police station in 2021. They were granted anticipatory bail. Subsequently, the bail was confirmed as they joined the investigation.

However, when the matter came up for hearing on September 14, 2023, it came to light that there were numerous such incidents of alleged excessive compensation paid to land owners, “prima facie, for extraneous considerations and on quid pro quo basis”. The court then dealt with the question of whether an independent SIT should hold a deeper probe into the functioning of NOIDA as a statutory authority.

During later hearings, the SC said that the state constitution “committee” had a limited mandate and expressed dissatisfaction over the outcome. It eventually suggested that an SIT, comprising senior IPS officers of UP cadre who do not belong to the state, be constituted to infuse transparency.

The bench asked the SIT to “do the needful, preferably within two months” and submit the report to it in a sealed cover. The bench added that “no coercive or penal action shall be taken against the landowners/farmers without” its “prior permission”.