AGARTALA: A government officer in Tripura who was entrusted with paying fair compensation to land owners for a border fencing project ended up proposing payments for nearly 10 times the land the government had legally acquired, dispatched an unauthorised demand of Rs. 235 crore to a central construction agency, and handed over lakhs of rupees to a person whose claim over the land was never properly established.
The High Court of Tripura has now confirmed, in unambiguous terms, that his dismissal from government service was fully warranted.
The Division Bench of Justice Dr. T. Amarnath Goud and Justice S. Datta Purkayastha dismissed Writ Appeal No. 88 of 2025 on February 10, 2026, rejecting the final legal challenge of Soumitra Chakma, a resident of Abhoynagar area here in Agartala, who served as Land Acquisition Collector for Unakoti District from August 2020 to June 2021.
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The story begins in 2005, when the state government issued a formal notification acquiring 24.08 acres of land at Kailashahar in Unakoti district, for the construction of the Indo-Bangladesh Border fencing.
However, the matter remained in legal dispute for years, until a High Court order in January 2021 directed that proper compensation be assessed and paid. It was at this point that Chakma entered the picture as the officer responsible for calculating what affected parties were owed.
What followed raised serious questions. Instead of confining his assessment to the 24.08 acres actually acquired, Chakma submitted a compensation proposal covering 225.80 acres, a figure nearly 10 times larger. He also sent a requisition of Rs. 235 crore directly to NBCC, a central government agency overseeing the fencing construction, without first obtaining approval from the state government, as financial rules required.
Additionally, he paid Rs. 58,28,476 to a person linked to Nattingcherra Tea Garden without verifying that individual’s ownership of the land. According to the state government, the Kumarghat Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) had specifically recommended that documents produced by one claimant be verified before any payment was made. Chakma proceeded regardless.
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The alarm extended beyond Tripura. It is learned that the Ministry of Home Affairs wrote formally to the state government in July 2021, expressing dissatisfaction and warning that the excessive compensation figure “may set a dangerous precedent across India in other border fencing projects.” Despite this, Chakma was charged only in May 2022, after a full departmental inquiry was initiated.
Meanwhile, in his defence, Chakma maintained that he had simply followed the High Court’s direction to make a correct assessment, and that his actions were never intended to cause harm. The court was not persuaded. It noted that “mere entries in the khatian cannot be treated as title deed” and held that without confirmed ownership, any claimant stepping onto acquired land “amounts to trespass” and “is not entitled for any such compensation either for land or trees.”
On the financial overreach, the court observed that Chakma “failed to obtain approval of the authority of the State Government before sending the requisition to NBCC for an amount of Rs. 235 crores” and that “such casual approach of the appellant cannot be accepted” from a senior public servant dealing with government funds.
Having found the disciplinary inquiry to be fair, the evidence sufficient, and the punishment proportionate to the gravity of the misconduct, the court upheld the dismissal order. With this ruling, Chakma’s 4-year legal battle to reclaim his government position has come to an end.
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Chakma was represented in court by S. Lodh, K. Roy and S. Majumder. The state’s case was argued by Government Advocate Kohinoor N. Bhattacharyya, and K. Pandey appeared for the Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC).