The Bombay High Court on Tuesday held that it was unlawful for the Maharashtra government and the City and Industrial Development Corporation to invoke the urgency clause under the Land Acquisition Act to acquire land for ancillary work related to the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

The City and Industrial Development Corporation, or CIDCO, is a government agency that is responsible for the planning of Navi Mumbai.

A bench of Justices MS Sonak and Jitendra Jain was hearing a petition by a group of residents of the Vahal village in the Panvel taluka of Raigad district whose lands had been acquired for construction linked to the airport, PTI reported.

The court quashed a declaration issued on May 20, 2015, and a land acquisition award from July 7, 2017, which stated that the petitioners’ land was required for a public purpose. It said that the authorities were unable to justify bypassing a provision of the Land Acquisition Act that gives landowners the right to be heard.

The urgency clause to acquire land can be invoked only “in grave and real urgency cases”, and application of mind is necessary before such provisions are used, the bench held. “No material is produced on record to justify the alleged invocation of the urgency provisions,” the court said.

The bench referred to a Supreme Court judgement that stated that landowners have a fundamental right to be heard before their land is acquired. “This right to be heard against the proposed acquisition must be meaningful and not a sham,” the division bench said.

The High Court questioned the government’s claim of urgency, noting that there was a gap of nearly two years between a notification from 2013 proposing to acquire the land, and the declaration from 2015 stating that it was required for a public purpose.

However, the court, while declaring the invocation of the urgency clause as unlawful, said its order would not prevent the authorities from acquiring the petitioners’ lands by invoking due procedure.

In February 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the airport at Ulwe Kopar near Panvel. It was supposed to begin its operation in December 2020. However, this was delayed due to several reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the delay in the land acquisition.

In 2021, the Adani Group acquired a controlling stake in the Navi Mumbai International Airport. In November, the Financial Express quoted an unidentified official of Adani Enterprises as saying that the airport would start operations in the April-June quarter of 2025.