Legislating for Justice: The Making of the 2013 Land Acquisition Law

• First hand account by the framers of the law
• Explains the rationale behind the new law
• First-hand account of the challenges faced and the factors that drove the decisions
• Highlights the deficits that still affect India's land rights jurisprudence

Land ownership in India has always been a risky proposition. The hitherto unfettered power of acquisition and the refusal of the Parliament to recognize the right to own property as a fundamental one, had emboldened the state to stake claim on any land it saw fit. However, in the years 2012-2014, the Government of India embarked on an exercise to not just amend but to rewrite the law on acquisition. This process saw the radical polarization of public opinion into two sharp sides â those who saw acquisition as a necessary tool to Indiaâs development (given the absence of other mechanisms guaranteeing clear title), and those who were sharply opposed to an archaic relic that defied the rule of law. 

This book attempts to explain the rationale employed behind each and every provision by the then Minister and his Principle Aide who helped draft the law. The book is a firsthand account of the challenges faced and the factors that drove the decisions in regulating the Stateâs approach to a resource that is arguably the most important in a land deficit people surplus nation.

Readership: Institutional libraries, departments of law, judicial academies, policy-makers, and researchers in the field of land laws; judges, legal practitioners, policymakers, social scientists, academicians, research scholars, members of civil society, farmers and land owners who are keen to understand how the law applies to them, teachers, students, and historians who wish to understand the thought process behind the law and its clauses.