Ahmedabad, Jan. 2 (PTI): Gujarat High Court has told the national highway authority that Hindi was a “foreign” language to farmers of the state and the agency should not have published its land notification in Gujarati, not just Hindi and English.

The observation was made last week by Justice V.M. Sahai, who was hearing a petition filed by a group of residents of Saraghvada village in Junagadh district.

The court said by not publishing the notification in Gujarati, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had erred. It quashed the NHAI’s land notification for a highway project issued last year and declared the process null and void. However, it refused to cancel the entire project.

“If we go through the meaning of the word ‘vernacular’ it is clear that the meaning of the word as per the dictionary is ‘the language or dialect spoken by ordinary people of the country or region’,” it said.

“This is an admitted position that the language of the region where the petitioners are residing, the language used by them is Gujarati, and Hindi language used in the notification is a foreign language for them,” it observed.

The court also held that the NHAI had failed to follow the procedure for public meetings laid down by the ministry of environment and forests.

According to the case details, in 2006, the NHAI had planned the widening of the existing 8D national highway from two lanes to four. However, it changed the alignment of the bypass last year on various grounds. This affected farmers in Junagadh and Rajkot.

According to Section 3 (A) 3 of the National Highways Act, the notification regarding a change in plan should have been published in Gujarati, but the NHAI published it only in Hindi and English in a leading Gujarati dailies.

The Saraghvada farmers moved the court as their land was to be acquired and objected to the plan on technical grounds.