The Bihar government is considering amending the rules for implementing the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (a.k.a. Land Acquisition Act, 2013) which lays down enhanced compensation to land owners in cases of land acquisition.

Since it's a central Act, the Bihar government, after getting the proposed changes approved by the government and state legislature, would have to send the amendments for presidential assent. The changes are likely to be placed for the state legislature's approval on April 24, when the special session would be held for approving the GST bills.

The state government is mulling these amendments in the wake of lack of clarity on compensation norms on land acquired prior to January 1, 2014, when the new legislation came into force, replacing the erstwhile Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

Taking advantage of the grey area in the new legislation, several landowners in Bihar whose pieces of land were acquired well before the promulgation of the 2013 Act, have made fresh claims for compensation. In certain cases, they have even won legal battles, forcing the government to challenge the orders.

Explaining the kind of problems the state is facing, a senior government official said: "We intend to make it clear that the pieces of land which were acquired well before the new Act was promulgated and for which the major chunk of compensation has been paid and government has taken possession of the land, should not be entertained as per the provisions of the new Act.

Also things like social impact assessment and food security, which are a must for land acquisition for certain kinds of government projects also, should not be applicable while paying compensation for old acquisitions."

Several landowners who had taken around four-fifth of the compensation as per the old law or whose money had been deposited in the treasury concerned and government had taken possession of the acquired land, opted for a legal battle, claiming that compensation had not been awarded.

A compensation is said to have been awarded when the government publishes a notification about the compensation paid and brings it in the public domain.

The new Act said that in case of non-award of compensation, a landowner whose land had been acquired prior to the promulgation of the legislation, could be paid compensation as per new terms.

According to the old Act, one was supposed to get 1.5 times of the government value of a land acquired in addition to 60 per cent solatium which was to be calculated on the compensation amount.

In the new Act of 2013, the compensation was to be double the government value of the acquired land and a solatium of equal amount had to be added while paying the compensation.

Also the new Act has additional provisions like conducting a social impact assessment and survey of food safety in case of acquisition of irrigated or multi-crop land.

"Taking advantage of the Compensation Awarding clause of the new Act, several landowners started approaching courts and according to our estimates, the state government could end up paying more than Rs 50,000 crore compensation for pieces of land which were acquired in the past," said the official.

He also pointed out a few sample cases from Patna and Bhagalpur districts where the state government could end up paying around Rs 100 crore to land owners though at the time of the acquisition of these pieces of land, the actual compensation was just a few crores of rupees.

"We cannot share specific details because several such cases are sub-judice as we have challenged the court orders."