Narmada Bachao Andolan vs Union Of India And Others on 18 October, 2000

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

PETITIONER:
NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN

Vs.

RESPONDENT:
UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

DATE OF JUDGMENT:18/10/2000

BENCH: B. N. KIRPAL , DR. A. S. ANAND

GUIDANCE BY: PROF. ADWITIYA TIWARI

SUBMITTED BY: UDITA GOEL

ROLL NO. 17GSOL101016
LLB (Hon)
6TH SEM, 3RD YR.
GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY

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 ACKNOWLEGDMENT

Every project big or small is successful largely due to the effort of a number of wonderful people
who have always given their valuable advice or lent a helping hand. I sincerely appreciate the
inspiration; support and guidance of all those people who have been instrumental in making this
project a success.

I am extremely grateful to "Mr. Adwitiya Tiwari" for the confidence bestowed in me and
entrusting my case study entitled " Narmada Bachao Andolan vs Union Of India And Others
on 18 October, 2000 . I also extend my gratitude to my project Guide to sir who assisted me in
compiling the project.

At this juncture I feel deeply honoured in expressing my sincere thanks to Dean of law
department Dr. Tabrez Khan for making the resources available at right time and providing
valuable insights leading to the successful completion of my project.

I would also like to thank for providing all necessary documents and other resources necessary
for completion of the work assigned.

Last but not the least I place a deep sense of gratitude to my family members and my friends who
have been constant source of inspiration during the preparation of this project work.

NAME: UDITA GOEL

ROLL NO: 17GSOL101016

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 INDEX

ACKNOWLEGDMENT...................................................................................................................................2
FACTS OF THE CASE.....................................................................................................................................4
Name of that courageous woman was Medha Patkar.................................................................................5
RESETTLEMENT AND REHABILITATION OF THE DISPLACED: EVALUATING THE STATE’S ATTITUDE.............6
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................11
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................................12
Articles:..................................................................................................................................................12
Books:....................................................................................................................................................12
Electronic Sources:................................................................................................................................12

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 FACTS OF THE CASE

In India large infrastructure projects have been seen as an important component of the
development strategy since independence. This includes construction of heavy industries, mega-
dams and large-scale creation of infrastructure. Large infrastructure projects in the form of dams
over the rivers have always been considered to provide power and irrigation benefits to the areas,
which suffer from the problem of underdevelopment.

With the similar objective of speeding up the process of development, idea of tapping the waters
of river Narmada, which is the largest river of peninsula India, flowing through three states of
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, was conceived and consequently of the Narmada
Valley Project to execute the same.1 Narmada Valley Project is a scheme to use the water of river
for irrigation, electricity generation and domestic water consumption. 2 This project is a massive
and the biggest single valley project till date in India and consists of 30 major dams, 135 medium
dams and 3,000 minor dams to be constructed on the basin of the river. It is hoped that the
almost 50 lakh hectares of land will be irrigated by this project, which will include a
considerable part of Gujarat drought-prone areas and the rest of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. 3
It is also expected of the project that it will generate an installed power capacity of the 3,830
MW. Some 1.15 crore people in the villages and many more in the cities are also supposed to get
benefit out of this project.

The Narmada Valley Project has been in controversy right since its inception. The dispute has
been with regard to sharing of benefits and costs between Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh. Then in 1969 to resolve the dispute Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal was constituted.
This gave its award after 10 years, which consisted of certain compromises between the State of
Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Award of the National Water Dispute Tribunal  is the basis on
which the work is carried out on the dam until today. This decided the height of the full reservoir

1
H M Mathur, Development, Displacement, Resettlement- Focus on Asian Experiences, (New Delhi: Vikas
publishing House, 1st edition, 1995), p.96.
2
H J Ruitenbeek, et.al., “Evaluation of Narmada Projects-An Ecological Economics perspective”, Economic and
Political Weekly, p.2138, August 26, 1995, p.2138.
3
A Kothari, et.al., “Narmada Valley Project-Development or Destruction”, Economic and Political Weekly, p.907,
June 2-9, 1984, p.908.

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of the dam, determined the shares of the water that each state would be entitled to. The award
also dealt with the issues of displacement and resettlement.

However the problem arises due to its inadequate planning and implementing scheme. The
project will entail large-scale exploitation of resources, submerging of an enormous area of
37,000 hectares of land including forests and agricultural land as a natural consequence of
construction of dam. Another biggest problem apart from the environmental aspect is of
displacement of as many as one million people, which has a large number of culturally diverse
people and peasant communities.

Full form of this plan has started to be appearing only from late 1980’s. It was around this time
that a 30-year old social activist and researcher reached the Narmada valley to study the villages
to be submerged by the Sardar Sarovar Dam. As she went ahead with her work, she got so
horrified by the whole plan that she soon left her survey and joined the activists who were
already working upon securing fair compensation for dam ‘oustees’. For next few years she
travelled on foot, by bus and boat throughout nearly 200-kilometers-long submergence zone to
urge the people to organise themselves to ask the government for their rights. Over a period of
time she managed to build the trust of many a local people and also happened to have attracted a
committed group of young people, which included engineers, social workers and journalist to
come to the valley. Then in early 1986, the activists and Maharashtra villagers constituted the
‘Narmada Dharangrast Samiti’ who refused to co-operate with dam officials and even to move
out of their villages. 4

Name of that courageous woman was Medha Patkar.

By 1987-88 she and other activists who had joined her earlier in her campaign in Maharashtra
and then in Madhya Pradesh and laid the foundations of what we know today as Narmada
Bachao Andolan. As an organization, the NBA was formed only in 1989 through the merging of
various other similar kinds of movements which were formed to improve the resettlement
policies such as Narmada Ghati Navnirman Samiti, Narmada Dharangrast Samit and the
Narmada Asargrahstha Sanghrsh Samiti.

4
P McCully, Silenced Rivers-The Ecology and politics of Large Dams, (Hyderabad: Orient Longman), p.337-338

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Slowly with the help of national press coverage and awareness support for the Narmada activists
mounted nationwide.5

Narmada Bachao Andolan has increasingly become one of the largest non-violent groups in the
world. This is also popularly known as voice of the hundreds of thousands of people who are
losing their land and livelihoods to large dams on the Narmada river. This Andolan includes
mainly the issues of ecological imbalances and the issues of rehabilitation and resettlement of
displaced people apart from other issues.6 Narmada Bachao Andolan since its formation has
conducted various ambitious campaigns, as a consequence of that they have faced far more
intense opposition and severe repression in comparison with the earlier civic initiatives. It must
also be remembered that their objective which in the starting was merely to get a fair
resettlement package for those who were being displaced has also undergone a change and now
they started even opposing the whole plan.

RESETTLEMENT AND REHABILITATION OF THE DISPLACED: EVALUATING

THE STATE’S ATTITUDE

Every year to make way for various developmental projects about five lakhs of people have been
displaced as a direct consequence of land acquisition. 7 According to the Government, the Sardar
Sarovar Project when completed will affect approximately 245 villages (40,000 families) in three
states.8 This must be noted that this data doesn’t give the true picture of displaced people because
the construction of Sardar Sarovar Project includes a series of other associated projects such as
immense canal network etc. and the Government has taken none of this into account while
calculating the Project Affected Persons. According to Narmada Bachao Andolan approximately
85,000 families in all will be displaced by the completion of the project. Problem is further
aggravated by the fact that most of the displaced are from tribal group. The tribal communities
who are the major victims of the displacement, by and large don’t have any highly stratified
social structure. Land, cattle etc. are collectively owned by the community among tribals.

5
J Sen, “Milestone or Landmark? Narmada Case in Historical Perspective”, Mainstream, p.7, March 11, 2000, p.10
6
R Singh, Dam and other major projects- Impact on and Response of Indigenous People, (Goa: CCA-URM, 1989),
p.40
7
S kothari, “Whose Nation? The Displaced as victims of Development”, Economic and Poitical Weekly,  p.1476,
June 15, 1996, p.1476.
8
 P Kala, “In The Spaces of Erasure-Globalization, Resistance and the Narmada River”, Economic and Political
Weekly, p.1991, June2, 2001, p.1994

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Therefore it becomes more difficult to calculate the actual loss that the displacement would
cause.

With regard to the policy measure to be adopted by the state for the resettlement of the displaced,
the National Water Dispute Tribunal for rehabilitation called for allotment of the agricultural
land only if the project affected families lost 25% or more of agricultural land.

However this policy of ‘land for land’ has not been much of a success because the land that is
being offered to Sardar Sarovar oustees is either of unproductive quality or of inferior and also
there is no criterion to judge the or assess the quality of land.

According to Madhya Pradesh Government policy for rehabilitation the sons are not eligible for
land compensation if it has not been divided among heirs. The problem is that in practice such
partition is not done until the person in whose name the land is held dies. Therefore according to
the government records they don’t have any claim on getting land for land. Going a step ahead
now the Madhya Pradesh government has even refused to give any ‘land for land’ and it offers
cash compensation, which has categorically been forbidden by Narmada Dispute Tribunal
Award.

This also doesn’t take in to account a host of communities, which lived in the basins of Narmada
river and earned their livelihood by fishing ferrying etc.

Even those who have been resettled due to the Sardar Sarovar Project are facing a great hardship
because there are no grazing lands, no firewood. Village, communities and even certain families
have been split up among many resettlement sites. The little involuntary resettlement whatever
has happened has also resulted in the erasure of their cultural spaces because the people who
lived beside the Narmada for generations felt a deep sense of attachment to the particulars of the
landscape.

The above picturisation of the problem is not peculiar to the Narmada Valley Development
Project but it is the general attitude of the State towards the problem of such powerless people. If

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we look at the Hirakud Dam oustees they also have not yet been rehabilitated till now, they have
just been the victims of development.9

Therefore it can safely be said that the state has miserably failed to take into account the
multitudes of the problems, which are being faced by the so-called victims of development.

Apart from the failure of the state to provide to any other workable solution it has also adopted
the method of oppression against those who don’t accept its grossly unjust package of
resettlement. This is evident by the statement of Morarji Desai where at a public meeting he said
“We will request you to move from your houses after the dam comes up. If you move it will be
good. Otherwise we shall release the waters and drown you all.”

As a result of the growing apathetic attitude of the state, Narmada Bachao Andolan filed a
petition in 1994 in another wing of the state, which claims itself to be the protector of
fundamental rights of its citizens and to provide justice to all.

9
P Viegas, “The Hirakud Dam Oustees: Thirty Years After” in Big Dams,Displaced People-Rivers of Sorrow Rivers
of Change, E G Thukural (editor), (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1992),  p.47

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Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the Narmada Bachao Andolan filed the petition in 1994. In its
petition it raised questions regarding rehabilitation and environment, which formed essential
requisites of the right to life, which is guaranteed by article 21 of the Constitution. It urged
before the court that the dam construction should not go on because the relief and rehabilitation
of the oustees as per the Tribunal’s Award had not been made. 10 The court first dealt with the
scope of the NBA petition and then decided to restrict it to relief and rehabilitation issue only.

During the course of the judgment the majority though indicates that it would deal with the
fundamental rights of the oustees and it should not deal with any other issue than the problems
arising out of displacement of human beings but in actual it gives more emphasis upon the
technical aspects. This judgment never fully discusses the issue of the fundamental rights but
unnecessarily deals with the issues of the usefulness of dams. Interestingly Justice B N Kirpal
who writes for himself and CJI A S Anand while recognizing the implications of the
displacement of the people and showing his empathy towards such people wrote

it is not fair that tribals and the people in un-developed villages should continue in the same
condition without ever enjoying the fruits of science and technology for better health and have a
higher quality of life style. Should they not be encouraged to seek greener pastures elsewhere, if
they can have access to it, either through their own efforts due to information exchange or due to
outside compulsions. It is with this object in view that the R&R plans, which are developed, are
meant to ensure that those who move must be better off in the new locations at Government cost.
In the present case, the R&R packages of the States, specially of Gujarat, are such that the living
conditions of the oustees will be much better than what they had in their tribal hamlets.

By which probably he means that by displacing the people it is actually doing a favour to them
and helping to bring them in the mainstream society.Court here said that it would not go into the
wisdom of having big dams because that was a matter of policy but later surprisingly the
majority praised big dams for their contribution to the agricultural and other progress of India.

The majority judgment then dismissed the objections raised by NBA regarding rehabilitation and
environment by depending on the affidavits which were given by the state governments and
directed to complete the project as expeditiously as possible.
10
Narmada Bachao Andolan v. Union of India and Others MANU/SC/0640/2000

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This judgment disappointed the human rights activists who were hoping for the closer scrutiny of
the project and a sensitized approach towards human rights.

Court during the course of its verdict emphasizes that the national interest should have the
overriding priority but the real question is whether any national interest is actually being served
by the construction of the dam or not.

The biggest problem with the supposed benefits of the dam is that they are being exaggerated by
the state and no one seems to know what the reality is. According to Baba Amte a massive
misinformation campaign is being launched by the state government to suppress the actual
information. The Sardar Sarovar dam, which is being advertised as the life-line of Gujarat and
the solution of all the drought-prone areas of Saurashtra, the truth is that 81% of water-starved
talukas in Saurashtra will not get any water from the Sardar Sarovar Project. Even two-third of
the Gujarat’ s drought-prone area will not be benefited by the project.

Other people also argue that the construction of the Project at the cost of such a huge
displacement of human beings, destruction of artistic tradition especially the paintings of
Narmada Man, historical monuments, archaeological sites, approximate 1,00,000 year old
alluvial deposits, which help to study the past climatic nature can not be said to be beneficial at
all.

Thus it is evident from the above discussion that the Project serves no national interest but only
of those powerful modernised people at the cost of so called underdeveloped or adivasi people.
This further raises the theoretical question of determining the extent of their being politically
obligated to the state and that of various other people also who are whether directly or indirectly
being affected by the project or not.

CONCLUSION

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Thus, it is evident from the forgoing discussion that given the needs of our society, it is true that
all the development projects cannot be brought to halt however it has become imperative to put
much more thought into the planning process, so that displacement can be kept to the absolute
minimum. Wherever the situation like Narmada valley project arises, where the development
would inevitably cause displacement of people in general and tribals in particular from their
ancestral homes, it would not be advisable for the state to adhere to the kind of apathetic attitude
to which it has stuck till now.

Developmental projects and dams arte taken up for the generation of income, power,
employment, improvement of living standards of people but on the contrary if communities
uprooted from their traditional places are not rehabilitated properly, this raises the question of
what kind of development and for whose development the state is pursuing its policies.

Though the story of innumerable lives, various cultures, various homes, different communities
can not be concluded in a few words nevertheless, the barbaric attitude, adopting to which the
state has been acting as an agent of elite, modern sections of society, delegitimises its authority
and gives the impression of it being of Marxian state in the 21 st century which has alienated itself
from the people, which in turn, gives right to people for not being obligated to it and to express
their dissent.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles:

1. A Kothari, et.al., “Narmada Valley Project-Development or Destruction”, Economic and

Political Weekly, p.907, June 2-9, 1984.
2. A Roy, “Greater Common Good”, available at, www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html (visited
on September 10, 2003).
3. B Amte, “Narmada Project-The Case Against and an alternative Perspective”, Economic
and Political Weekly, p.811, April 21, 1990.
4. B Parekh, “A Misconceived Discourse on Political Obligation”, Political Studies, p.236,
1993.
5. D S Raj, “Development Projects and Displaced People: A Case of Dams”, Man &
Development, p.40, March 1999.
6. G Dietrich, “Dams and People-Adivasi Land Rights”, Economic and Political Weekly,
p.3379, September 16, 2000.

Books:

1. H M Mathur, Development, Displacement, Resettlement- Focus on Asian Experiences,

(New Delhi: Vikas publishing House, 1st edition, 1995).
2. L C Jain, Dam vs Drinking Water-Exploring the Narmada Judgement, (Pune: Parisar,
2001).
3. P McCully, Silenced Rivers-The Ecology and politics of Large Dams, (Hyderabad:
Orient Longman).
4. R Singh, Dam and other major projects- Impact on and Response of Indigenous People,
(Goa: CCA-URM, 1989).

Electronic Sources:

1. www.narmada.org/nvdp.dams/index.html, (visited on 10th September, 2016).

2. www.narmada.org/nvdp.dams/index.html, (visited on September 10, 2016)

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