KSLU Solved Question Papers
Land Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2024 Aug Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Land Law 2024 Aug Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2024 Aug examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2024 Aug examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2024 Aug examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short notes/problems is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Discuss the Social Impact Assessment under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what a social impact assessment is and why the 2013 Act made it the first step; consultation and the study under section 4, with the matters it must assess; the public hearing (section 5); publication (section 6); the Expert Group (section 7); the Government's examination (section 8); exemption in urgency (section 9) and lapse (section 14); the Karnataka exemption under section 10-A; cases; conclusion.
What social impact assessment means
A social impact assessment is a study made before land is acquired. It asks who will lose land, homes or livelihood, what the project will cost society, and whether the project is worth that cost. Under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 there was no such step. The Government notified the land first and heard objections later.
The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 reversed that order. Chapter II, sections 4 to 9, makes the study the first stage of every acquisition. The preliminary notification under section 11 must carry a summary of the study.
Preparation of the study: section 4
Whenever the appropriate Government intends to acquire land for a public purpose, it must consult the Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation of the affected area. It must carry out the study in consultation with them. The notification starting the study must reach these bodies in the local language. It must also reach the offices of the Collector, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and the Tahsil. It must also be published in the affected area and uploaded on the Government's website.
The Panchayat, Gram Sabha or Municipality must be adequately represented while the study is made. The study must be completed within six months of its start.
Section 4(4) lists what the study must assess:
- whether the acquisition serves a public purpose;
- how many families are affected and how many will be displaced;
- the extent of public and private land, houses, settlements and common property affected;
- whether the land sought is the absolute bare minimum the project needs;
- whether land at another place was considered and found not feasible;
- the social impacts, the cost of meeting them, and that cost against the benefits of the project.
Section 4(5) adds the components to be studied. They include livelihoods, roads and transport, drinking water and water for cattle. They also include ponds, grazing land, plantations, schools, health care, fair price shops and places of worship. Section 4(6) requires a Social Impact Management Plan. It lists the measures to meet each impact, and they cannot be less than any existing Government scheme in the area.
Public hearing and publication: sections 5 and 6
Section 5 requires a public hearing in the affected area after adequate publicity of its date, time and place. The views of the affected families must be recorded and included in the report. Section 6 requires the report and the management plan to be published in the local language, in the same offices and on the website. Where an environmental impact assessment is made, the report goes to the impact assessment agency.
The Expert Group: section 7
The report is appraised by an independent multi-disciplinary Expert Group. It has two non-official social scientists, two representatives of the Panchayat, Gram Sabha or Municipality, two rehabilitation experts and a technical expert. It must report within two months.
It may find that the project serves no public purpose, or that its social costs outweigh its benefits. It must then recommend that the project be abandoned. The Government may still go ahead, but only after recording its reasons in writing. If the Group approves the project, it must say whether the land sought is the bare minimum and whether a less displacing option exists.
Examination by the Government: section 8
Before acquiring, the Government must be satisfied of five things:
- there is a legitimate and bona fide public purpose;
- the benefits outweigh the social costs;
- only the minimum area is being taken;
- there is no unused land acquired earlier in the area;
- any such unused land is put to the public purpose first. It must then choose the area that causes the least displacement and the least damage to infrastructure and ecology. For private company and partnership projects, it must check that the consent required by section 2(2) was obtained.
Exemption and lapse: sections 9 and 14
Under section 9, the study may be dispensed with only where the urgency power in section 40 is used. Under section 14, the report lapses if the preliminary notification is not issued within twelve months of its appraisal. The Government may extend that period by a recorded and published decision.
Karnataka amended the Act in 2019 by Karnataka Act 16 of 2019. The new section 10-A lets the State exempt notified projects from the whole of Chapter II. These include defence, irrigation, drinking water, affordable housing and industrial corridor projects.
The courts on hearing the affected people first
Radhy Shyam v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2011) 5 SCC 553. Land at Greater Noida was acquired for planned industrial development. The State used the urgency clause of the 1894 Act to skip the inquiry into objections under section 5-A. The Supreme Court quashed the acquisition. It held that the time needed to hear objections is not delay that defeats the purpose. It called section 5-A the statutory form of the rule that no one shall be condemned unheard. The 2013 Act carries this further: the affected people are heard before notification, in the study itself.
Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd v. Ministry of Environment and Forest, (2013) 6 SCC 476. Bauxite mining was proposed on the Niyamgiri hills, home of the Dongaria Kondh. The Supreme Court held that the effect on their religious and community rights was for their Gram Sabhas to decide. All twelve Gram Sabhas later refused. The case shows the weight the law now gives to the affected community's own voice, which section 4 builds into every study.
Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India, (2000) 10 SCC 664. The majority allowed the Sardar Sarovar dam to rise only in step with rehabilitation of the displaced. The social impact study is meant to bring such costs into view before the decision, not after construction has begun.
Conclusion. The social impact assessment makes the people of the affected area the first participants in an acquisition. A six-month study with the Panchayat or Municipality comes first. A public hearing, an independent Expert Group and a reasoned decision by the Government follow, all before the preliminary notification. The Government may override the Expert Group only in writing. In Karnataka, projects notified under section 10-A are exempt, and elsewhere only urgency under section 40 can dispense with the study.
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