Government gazettes Land Acquisition Amendment Bill
Posted: Saturday, September 14, 2002Herald Reporter
THE Government yesterday gazetted the Land Acquisition Amendment (No.2) Bill of 2002, which seeks to remove remaining obstacles in acquiring land required for agricultural purposes.
According to the extraordinary gazette published yesterday, the Bill proposes to increase the fine for non-compliance with an order made under Section 8 from $20 000 to $100 000 among other issues.
Section 7 of the principal Act obliges an acquiring authority to apply to the Administrative Court for an order confirming an acquisition of land, if the land is objected to.
The new subsection (4a) which clause 2 of this Bill seeks to insert in the section, will relieve an acquiring authority of the need to prove that rural land is suitable for agricultural resettlement if it is acquiring the land for that purpose.
An amendment on Section 9(b) provides for the re-issue of Section 8 orders, which are invalid for any reason, such as where the acquiring authority was unable to file applications for confirmation of the acquisition with Administra-tive Court within 30 days of service of the order as required by the principal Act.
The period of notice to vacate land in the case of an order that is re-issued within 90 days of the date of issue of the invalid order shall be the unexpired portion of that 90-day period.
The period of notice to vacate land in the case of an order that is re- issued after 90 days from the date of issue of the invalid order shall be seven days from the date of service of the re-issued order.
If a farmer fails to comply with the order, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding $100 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both.
Another amendment directs the court, which has convicted a person for failing to comply with the order, to issue an order to evict that person from the land to which the offence relates.
The Land Acquisition Amendment Bill No2 was being proposed at a time when the High Court had rejected the validity of certain acquisition orders on technical grounds.
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