Abstract:

The only justice available to owners who have been deprived of their land ownership through compulsory land acquisition is the right to fair compensation. This compensation can be monetary or land equivalent to the value of the land deprived. It is a well-established
principle that the deprivation of this land ownership can be justified on the eminent domain of the State for a public purpose. However, relinquishing one’s rights for a public purpose through no fault of one’s own but for the benefit of the general public is a fair approach that the deprived rights should be restored by providing a better position than the existing condition. This is especially the case when people who are already well-settled have been forced to resettle due to being relocated. The research problem sought to be addressed is that although the Land Acquisition Act No. 09 of 1950, Sri Lanka National Involuntary Resettlement Policy in May 2001, and National Policy on Payment of Compensation in November 2008 clearly state how compensation should be given for the acquired land based on the culmination of the market value of land acquired, severance and injurious Affected to land retained, disturbance and other losses, there is a gap in the fact that the socio-economic factors are not considered while calculating the compensation and it would be more crucial due to the ongoing higher economic inflation in the country where land value remains unchanged compared to all other goods and services. Therefore, the objective of this research is to inquire about the possibility of considering socio-economic factors in calculating adequate compensation in the acquisition of land for public purposes based on having a proper balance between private and public interests, and this reasoning can be adequately substantiated by social engineering theory. While adopting the doctrinal approach, this research examines the necessity of establishing a comprehensive framework for Land-for- Land and Cash-for-Land compensation or a combination of them for the acquired land in the Sri Lankan context. The results show that countries like India have successfully implemented compensation mechanisms considering socio-economic factors in computing compensation for acquired land. Such an approach could also be adopted by Sri Lanka to confirm the effective implementation of justice.

Keywords: Compensation, Economic Inflation, Justice, Land Acquisition, Public Purpose