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Judgment
The application is formal in nature. A prayer is made by the applicant to be able to inspect the original documents pertaining to acquisition of land for the expansion of Umroi airport.
Pursuant to a direction issued by the Supreme Court, an inquiry was initiated by the High Court, presided over by the then District Judge, Ri-Bhoi. The object of the exercise was to ascertain if, and to what extent, land-losers had been overpaid for the additional land that was acquired for the expansion of the airport. The District Judge’s report was taken up for consideration on the judicial side and it was discovered that not only did it not indicate whether any excess payment has been received by the land-losers, there was no attempt at assessing the quantum.
In such circumstances, by a recent order dated February 21, 2023, a fresh inquiry has been directed to be conducted by the present District Judge, Ri-Bhoi, to ascertain whether any overpayment was made to any of the land-losers and, if any, to what extent. Such exercise is being undertaken by the relevant District Judge. It is in such context that the present prayer has been made.
It is only fair that if any document is relied upon, in course of a fact-finding exercise, to find any wrongdoing by any person, such person must be afforded an opportunity to inspect the documents and accept or dispute the veracity thereof, including the contents. As such, the prayer is allowed by directing the Registrar-General of this Court to hand over all documents pertaining to the matter to the present District Judge, Ri-Bhoi upon making an inventory thereof and retaining a copy of the inventory list.
Such exercise should be completed in course of next week. Immediately upon receipt of the entire set of original documents, it will be open to the District Judge, Ri-Bhoi, conducting the fact-finding exercise to allow the parties to inspect the same and even obtain copies thereof, if deemed necessary.
MC (PIL) No.2 of 2023 is disposed of without costs.
It is recorded that nothing in this order will stand in the way of the District Judge exercising appropriate discretion in the matter and ensuring that the exercise is completed without undue delay.