The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 to amend the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 was promulgated by the President on 31.12.2014, and the RFCTLARR (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Lok Sabha on 10.03.2015 to replace the said Ordinance, however the same could not be passed by the Council of States and is pending in that House. Therefore, the RFCTLARR (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 incorporating the amendments made by the House of the People was promulgated by the President on 03.04.2015. As the Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary to give continued effect to the provisions of the RFCTLARR (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, the said Ordinance was re-promulgated by the President on 30.05.2015 as ‘the RFCTLARR (Amendment) Second Ordinance, 2015’, which proposes following amendments in the RFCTLARR Act, 2013
- Substitutes the word “private company” with “private entity”;
- Substitutes the words and figures “Companies Act, 1956” with that of “Companies Act, 2013”;
- Inserts a definition for “private entity” as “any entity other than a Government entity or undertaking and includes a proprietorship, partnership, company, corporation, non-profit organisation or other entity under any law for the time being in force”;
- Inserts a new Chapter IIIA which provides for the power of the appropriate Government to exempt certain projects from the application of the provisions of Chapter II and Chapter III of the Act;
- Provides for compulsory employment to atleast one member of the affected family of farm labourers;
- Provides right to farmers to appeal/ complain over land acquisition hearing and redressal of grievances at the district level;
- Court to take cognizance of the offence under the Act as per Section 197 of the CrPC against the persons who are/was employed in the Central Government or State Government;
- Return of unutilized land – instead of after “a period of five years” to “a period specified for setting up of any project or for five years, whichever is later”;
- Substitutes Section 105(3) with the following clause-
“(3) The provisions of this Act relating to the determination of compensation in accordance with the First Schedule, rehabilitation and resettlement in accordance with the Second Schedule and infrastructure amenities in accordance with the Third Schedule shall apply to the enactments relating to land acquisition specified in the Fourth Schedule with effect from 1st January, 2015″.
-Ministry of Law & Justice