After the supreme court made scathing observations on Tuesday on the role of the state governments in depriving poor farmers of their land in the ruse of development, it today upheld the Allahabad high court order that quashed the acquisition of over 156 hectares of land from farmers in three villages of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

The apex court held that the acquisition of the village land under the emergency provisions of the Land Acquistion Act (Section 19) was wrong. The division bench pulled up the Mayawati government of Uttar Pradesh for taking over the land in Shahberi village under the emergency provisions where the land owners were denied the right to be heard. It remarked, "There was no justification for invoking emergency provisions to acquire the land when 60 percent of the already acquired land had not been utilised by the state."

The bench of justices G S Singhvi and A S ganguly also raised doubts over the manner in which land rules were tweaked and even before the government approved the use of land from industrial to residential purposes, Greater Noida industrial development authority (GNIDA) allotted it to builders.

While the division bench dismissed the petitions by GNIDA and several private builders against the June judgment of Allahabad high court, the court also fined the authority Rs 10 lakh.