In a fresh jolt to Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the state's move to acquire private land by invoking the “emergency clause” in Jyotibha Phule Nagar for construction of the district jail. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu said the state had seriously erred in acquiring the land by denying the land owners their valuable right to raise objections and being heard to express their grievances. The apex court said the emergency clause of the Land Acquisition Act wasinvoked by the government in a lackadaisical manner even though the state had sufficient time to go through the normal procedure of inviting objections and addressing the grievances of the land losers.