The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that even those temporarily affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam project will be entitled to alternative cultivable land allotted by the states.
A three-judge Bench, comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice S B Sinha, gave the order.
Consequently, the states will have to look again into the relief and rehabilitation work they carried out before raising the dam height.
Though the final height of the dam will be 138 metres, the court, on a petition filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan, had said the height could be raised in phases after completing relief and rehabilitation measures for the project-affected families.
The ruling came on an application filed on behalf of PAFs from Pichodi and Jalsindhi villages in Madhya Pradesh through counsels Sanjay Parikh and S Muralidhar.
The court also ruled that each major son of a PAF will be entitled to separate land allotments at alternative sites in addition to the land allotted to the PAF.
The counsel said Maharashtra and Gujarat had allotted alternative lands to the major sons of PAFs. With this order, even Madhya Pradesh will have to follow suit.
The court directed the Grievance Redressal Authority to work out the relief and rehabilitation package for the PAFs taking into account the latest ruling.