The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on Shri Saryu Nagar Vikas Samiti’s challenge to Ayodhya land acquisition, after hearing arguments on social impact assessment and the safeguards of the 2013 land acquisition law.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday, October 26, 2026, reserved its judgment on the challenge brought by Shri Saryu Nagar Vikas Samiti to the acquisition of land in Ayodhya, after hearing arguments on social impact assessment and on the safeguards available under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 [Shri Saryu Nagar Vikas Samiti v. State of Uttar Pradesh].
The Samiti, acting through its president Awadhesh Kumar Singh, has questioned acquisitions carried out for housing schemes in Ayodhya. The arguments before the Court centred on whether landowners were entitled to a social impact assessment and to the compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement protections that the 2013 Act provides. The Court will now deliver its verdict on a later date.
How the case reached here
The dispute concerns schemes framed by the Uttar Pradesh Awas Evam Vikas Parishad (Housing Board) in Ayodhya and acquisitions made for them under the U.P. Awas Evam Vikas Parishad Adhiniyam, 1965, through notifications issued from 2020 onwards. Landowners argued before the Allahabad High Court that the State had chosen the 1965 law over the 2013 Act, which carries higher compensation, mandatory rehabilitation and resettlement, and a social impact assessment before acquisition. In April 2026, a Division Bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla at Lucknow stayed the acquisition proceedings, ordered status quo, and observed that prima facie the 1965 route appeared less beneficial to landowners.
The same Bench later decided a batch of one public interest litigation and nine writ petitions, with the Samiti’s petition at the head of the batch. Ruling in September 2026, it held that the 1965 Adhiniyam is not repugnant to the 2013 Act, since it is in pith and substance a law on housing and urban development, with acquisition only incidental to that purpose. To save Section 55 of the Adhiniyam and its Schedule from Article 14, the High Court directed that compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement for acquisitions under the 1965 law follow the same parameters as the 2013 Act.
ALSO READ: Ayodhya Land Case| Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Plea, Tells Petitioners to Move HC
The legal position
Chapter II of the 2013 Act requires the appropriate government to carry out a social impact assessment, with public hearings in the affected area, before acquiring land for a public purpose, and Chapters IV to VI lay down compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement entitlements. State development statutes that carry their own acquisition machinery, such as the 1965 Adhiniyam, have repeatedly raised the question of whether landowners under them can be denied these protections. The High Court’s answer was to keep the State law in place while reading in the 2013 Act’s compensation and resettlement parameters.
Whether that is enough, and whether a social impact assessment can be dispensed with when land is taken under a State housing law, are among the questions the Supreme Court has now heard. The Court’s judgment is expected to settle the position for the Ayodhya schemes and may have a bearing on similar acquisitions under State development laws.
Case Title: Shri Saryu Nagar Vikas Samiti v. State of Uttar Pradesh
Court: Supreme Court of India
Date: October 26, 2026 (judgment reserved)