Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Award and Procedure — Land Law Notes

Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Award and Procedure

For 119 years, “acquisition” meant a cheque to the landowner and nothing for anyone else. The tenant farming the field, the labourer working it, the potter selling by the roadside — all lost their living and were simply told to move. The single biggest reform of the 2013 Act is that it made rehabilitation and resettlement part of the acquisition itself: the government cannot take possession of the land until it has actually rehoused and rehabilitated every affected family. No R&R, no possession. This topic is where the Act’s promise becomes concrete money, houses and jobs.

What the R&R Award is

Here is the everyday picture: the compensation award (Topic 7) pays for the land; the R&R Award rebuilds the life that stood on it. Under section 31, the Collector passes a separate Rehabilitation and Resettlement Award for each affected family, spelling out exactly what that family will get — a house, land, a job or annuity, and a set of allowances — drawn from the entitlements in the Second Schedule. The best way to structure the essay is in three parts: (A) the scheme and authorities, (B) the Award and its contents, and (C) the entitlements and the safeguards on possession.

Section 31(1), RFCTLARR Act, 2013: “The Collector shall pass Rehabilitation and Resettlement Awards for each affected family in terms of the entitlements provided in the Second Schedule.”

In Simple Terms: Section 31 forces the Collector to sit down for every affected family and write out an individual R&R Award — this family gets this house, this much land, this job or annuity, these allowances. It is personal and itemised, not a single lump sum for the village.

A. The scheme and the authorities

R&R runs on a dedicated machinery, and naming the officers scores marks:

  1. The R&R Scheme (s. 16). After the preliminary notification, the Administrator for R&R prepares a draft Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme, based on the SIA, listing the affected families and their entitlements. It is discussed at a public hearing in the Gram Sabha and then published.
  2. Administrator for R&R (s. 43). The appropriate Government appoints an officer (not below a specified rank) as Administrator to formulate, execute and monitor the R&R plan on the ground.
  3. Commissioner for R&R (s. 44). The State appoints a Commissioner to supervise the Administrator and oversee the overall implementation of R&R for the project.
  4. R&R Committee at project level (s. 45). For projects involving large-scale displacement, a project-level committee monitors and reviews the actual implementation of the R&R scheme.

(Above these sit the National and State Monitoring Committees of Unit 2.)

B. The R&R Award and its contents (s. 31)

The R&R Award for each family must specify, so far as applicable, the following — where a head does not apply to a family, it is marked “not applicable”:

  1. the R&R amount payable to the family;
  2. the bank account to which the amount is to be transferred;
  3. particulars of the house site and house to be allotted (for displaced families);
  4. particulars of the land allotted to displaced families;
  5. one-time subsistence allowance and transportation allowance (for displaced families);
  6. particulars of payment for cattle shed and petty shops;
  7. the one-time amount to artisans and small traders;
  8. details of mandatory employment to be provided to members of affected families;
  9. particulars of any fishing rights involved;
  10. particulars of annuity and other entitlements; and
  11. special provisions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Topic 9).

Infrastructural amenities (s. 32). In every resettlement area, the Collector must ensure the provision of the basic minimum amenities and infrastructural facilities listed in the Third Schedule — roads, drainage, drinking water, schools, health centres, electricity and the like — so that a resettlement colony is a real place to live, not a bare plot.

C. The Second Schedule entitlements

These are the concrete benefits the Award draws on — give three or four in a short note, more in an essay:

  1. Housing — a constructed house (as per specifications) for each displaced family, or an amount in lieu.
  2. Land for land — in irrigation projects, at least one acre of land in the command area for each displaced family (SC/ST families get special preference — Topic 9).
  3. Choice of employment or annuity — one of: a job for one member of the affected family (where employment is generated), or a one-time payment, or an annuity paid for twenty years with indexation for inflation.
  4. Subsistence grant — a monthly subsistence allowance for one year for displaced families.
  5. One-time resettlement allowance and a transportation allowance for shifting.
  6. Cattle shed / petty shop amount, and a one-time grant to artisans, small traders and the self-employed.
  7. Additional benefits, e.g. stamp-duty exemption on the resettlement land and continued fishing rights where relevant.

D. Powers of the Collector and the safeguard on possession

  1. Correction of the Award (s. 33). The Collector may correct clerical or arithmetical mistakes in an award, on his own motion or on application, but not later than six months from the award, and never to a person’s prejudice without hearing him.
  2. Civil-court powers. For his enquiries the Collector may summon witnesses, compel production of documents and adjourn the enquiry, with the powers of a civil court under the CPC, 1908.
  3. Possession only after R&R (s. 38) — the key safeguard. The Collector may take possession of the land only after full payment of compensation and the R&R entitlements. The Act sets timelines: compensation within three months, the monetary R&R entitlements within six months, and the infrastructural R&R components within eighteen months of the award. For irrigation/hydel projects, R&R must be complete six months before submergence.
  4. Multiple displacement. A family already displaced once must not be displaced again without additional compensation equal to the earlier compensation.
  5. Urgency (s. 40). In genuine emergencies (defence, national security, natural calamities), the government may take possession on short notice after tendering 80% of the estimated compensation, and may dispense with the SIA and some R&R procedure — but must then pay an additional 75% of compensation (except for projects touching sovereignty, security or foreign relations).

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — possession refused until R&R is delivered

Facts. A dam project’s award is passed. The State pays the landowners their land compensation and immediately tries to take possession to start construction, but the displaced families have not yet received their houses, subsistence allowance or resettlement plots.

Rule. Section 38 bars the Collector from taking possession until both compensation and R&R entitlements are paid — monetary R&R within six months, infrastructural components within eighteen months, and for irrigation projects R&R complete six months before submergence.

Apply. Paying only the land compensation is not enough. The R&R entitlements — houses, subsistence, plots — are unpaid, so the s. 38 pre-condition is not met. Possession cannot lawfully be taken; for a dam, R&R had to be finished six months before any submergence.

Conclusion. The State’s attempt to take possession is premature and unlawful. The rule “no R&R, no possession” is exactly what makes rehabilitation a real right rather than a paper promise.

flowchart TD
    ROOT["R&R Award (s.31 + Second Schedule)"]:::root
    ROOT --> SCH["Scheme & authorities<br/>s.16 R&R Scheme · s.43 Administrator<br/>s.44 Commissioner · s.45 project committee"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> AWD["s.31 Award per family<br/>house · land · job/annuity ·<br/>subsistence · transport · allowances<br/>+ SC/ST provisions"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> AMEN["s.32 Infrastructural amenities<br/>in resettlement area (Third Schedule)"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> POSS{"s.38 Possession?<br/>compensation + R&R paid?"}:::decide
    POSS -->|"No"| BAR["Possession BARRED<br/>(3m compensation / 6m monetary R&R /<br/>18m infrastructure)"]:::warn
    POSS -->|"Yes"| TAKE["Possession lawful"]:::leaf
    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#000,stroke-width:1px,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;
    classDef decide fill:#FEF3C7,stroke:#92400E,color:#000;
    classDef warn fill:#FDECEA,stroke:#B22222,color:#000;
    linkStyle default stroke:#888,stroke-width:1px;

Case Laws

  • State of UP vs Abdul Ali (2017) — once an award is passed, corrections are confined to the narrow clerical/arithmetical power (s. 33) and only within six months; there can be no award for property that was never notified.
  • Pune Municipal Corporation vs Harakchand Misirimal Solanki (2014) — actual payment/deposit of compensation and completion of the process are mandatory; failure defeats the acquisition, protecting affected families.
  • Delhi Development Authority vs Sukhbir Singh (2016) — interpreted the possession and compensation provisions of the new Act, reinforcing that its R&R and payment safeguards are substantive conditions, not formalities.

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