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B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Land Law 2024 Aug (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions

KSLU Solved Question Papers

Land Law

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10

2024 Aug (100 marks) Examination

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Mumbai

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First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

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munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.

The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.

The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2024 Aug (100 marks) examination.

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Contents

The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2024 Aug (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.

MarksPage

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MarksPage

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The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2024 Aug (100 marks) 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 100  ·  13 questions answered

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.

Read the original question paper

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Q1Explain the importance of social impact assessment under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.[16]

Answer

For full marks, cover: what social impact assessment is; why it was included in the 2013 Act, against the background of displacement under the 1894 Act; the stages of the study under sections 4 to 9 and 14; its importance under six heads: participation, testing public purpose, minimum land, counting the real cost, protecting livelihoods and commons, and mitigation; how it links with consent, food security and rehabilitation; the exemptions and Karnataka's 2019 amendment; criticism and limits; cases; conclusion.

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What social impact assessment is

A social impact assessment is a study, made before land is acquired, of how a project will affect the people of an area. It counts the families who will lose land, homes or livelihoods. It identifies common resources, such as grazing land, ponds and places of worship, that will be lost. It weighs the social costs against the benefits. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 deals with it in Chapter II. Sections 4 to 9 make it the first stage of every acquisition.

Why it was included

Under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the Government first notified land and only then heard objections, and only on a few points. There was no duty to study who would be displaced or how they would live afterwards. Over decades, dams, mines, industries and towns displaced millions of people, many of them tribal people and small farmers. Many were never properly rehabilitated.

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The courts repeatedly faced the human cost of large projects after the event. In the Narmada and Tehri dam cases, the Supreme Court had to tie construction to rehabilitation. In the Singur case, land was taken from cultivators for a car factory and later had to be returned. The 2013 Act responded by making the study compulsory and making it come first, before any notification.

The stages of the study

  1. Notification and consultation (section 4(1) and (2)). The Government notifies the start of the study in the local language. It consults the Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation, which must be adequately represented.
  2. Time limit. The study must be completed within six months.
  3. Contents (section 4(4)). It must assess whether the acquisition serves a public purpose. It must count the affected and displaced families and the land, houses and common property affected. It must ask whether the land sought is the bare minimum and whether another site was considered. It must compare the social costs with the benefits.
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  1. Components (section 4(5)). It must study livelihoods, roads and transport, drinking water, water for cattle, ponds, grazing land, schools, health care, fair price shops and places of worship.
  2. Management plan (section 4(6)). It must prepare a Social Impact Management Plan of remedial measures, not less than existing Government schemes.
  3. Public hearing (section 5). The views of affected families are heard in the affected area and recorded in the report.
  4. Publication (section 6). The report and plan are published in the local language and on the website.
  5. Expert Group (section 7). An independent group of social scientists, local representatives, rehabilitation experts and a technical expert appraises the report within two months.
  6. Government's decision (section 8). The Government must be satisfied of a bona fide public purpose, of benefits outweighing costs and of minimum land, before proceeding.
  7. Lapse (section 14). The report lapses if the preliminary notification is not issued within twelve months of the appraisal.

Why the study is important

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  1. It gives the affected people a voice first. The local body takes part in the study, and the families are heard at a public hearing before the Government commits itself. Under the 1894 Act they were heard only after notification.
  2. It tests the public purpose. The first thing the study must assess is whether the acquisition serves a public purpose. If the Expert Group finds none, it must recommend abandoning the project. The Government may proceed only with written reasons.
  3. It keeps the land taken to the minimum. The study must ask whether the land is the bare minimum and whether a less displacing option exists. Section 8 then requires the Government to choose the area causing least displacement.
  4. It counts the real cost. Under section 4(4)(f), the cost of meeting social impacts is set against the project's benefits.
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  1. It protects livelihoods and commons. Labourers, tenants, artisans, fisher folk and forest dwellers are counted, not only landowners. Grazing land, ponds and community property are recorded.
  2. It plans the remedy in advance. The Social Impact Management Plan lists measures for each impact. Its findings are summarised in the preliminary notification, guide the rehabilitation scheme, and may be challenged by objection under section 15.

Links with the rest of the Act

  1. For private company projects and public private partnership projects, the consent of 80 or 70 per cent of affected families is needed.
  2. The study supplies the facts for the food security check under section 10.
  3. The Administrator's survey and rehabilitation scheme under section 16 build on its census of affected families.
  4. In Scheduled Areas, the Gram Sabha's consent under section 41 is also needed.

Exemptions

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  1. Urgency (section 9). The study may be dispensed with only where the urgency power in section 40 is used.
  2. Irrigation projects. Some irrigation projects need an environmental impact assessment under another law. Under the proviso to section 6(2), the study provisions do not apply to them.
  3. Karnataka. Karnataka Act 16 of 2019 added section 10-A. The State may exempt notified projects from Chapters II and III in the public interest. The list covers defence projects and infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, offices, electrification, irrigation and drinking water. It also covers affordable housing, State industrial corridors, and projects where the land stays with the State. Before notifying, the State must keep the land to the minimum needed.

Criticism and limits

  1. Delay. Industry and Governments argue that the six-month study, the Expert Group and the lapse rule slow down projects. That argument lay behind the 2014 and 2015 ordinances, which were not enacted, and behind State amendments like Karnataka's.
  2. The Government's last word. The Expert Group can only recommend. The Government may override it with written reasons.
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  1. Wide exemptions. The Karnataka amendment lets the State exempt most public infrastructure, so the study now applies mainly to other projects in the State.
  2. Quality. A study is only as good as those who conduct it. Real participation needs genuine notice, local language and independent experts.

Cases

Radhy Shyam v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2011) 5 SCC 553. Land at Greater Noida was acquired for industrial development by invoking urgency to deny objections under section 5-A of the 1894 Act. The Supreme Court quashed the acquisition. It held that there was no real urgency. The time needed for a section 5-A hearing could not justify taking away the owners' right to be heard. The social impact study moves that hearing to the very start.

Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India, (2000) 10 SCC 664. Petitioners complained that the Sardar Sarovar dam had been cleared without adequate study and that rehabilitation lagged. The majority allowed construction only in step with rehabilitation. Bharucha J, dissenting, would have stopped work until the environmental impact was studied. The case shows the cost of deciding first and studying later.

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Orissa Mining Corporation v. Ministry of Environment and Forests, (2013) 6 SCC 476. Bauxite mining was proposed on the Niyamgiri hills. The Dongria Kondh claimed religious and community rights there under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The Supreme Court left it to their Gram Sabhas to decide those claims before the Ministry's final decision. The case reflects the same principle: those affected must be heard before the decision.

Kedar Nath Yadav v. State of West Bengal, decided on 31 August 2016. About 1,000 acres at Singur were acquired in 2006 for a car factory. The Supreme Court quashed the acquisition, partly because objections were not properly considered, and returned the land. A prior social impact study would have tested both the purpose and the cost.

Conclusion. Social impact assessment was included in the 2013 Act to end the practice of taking land first and counting the human cost later. It gives the affected people a voice before notification and tests whether a public purpose exists. It keeps the land taken to the minimum and plans rehabilitation in advance. Its importance is recognised by the courts' own experience in the Narmada, Greater Noida and Singur cases. Its force is reduced by exemptions for urgency and, in Karnataka, for notified projects under section 10-A.

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