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Bharatsing s/o Gulabsingh Jakhad & Ors. v. The State of Maharashtra & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 1218Decided 12 Dec 2017
Civil Appeal No. 21792 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

The appellants' land was acquired in 1974, and when other landowners covered by the same acquisition notification later won enhanced compensation from a Reference Court, the appellants applied under Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act in 1992 to get the same enhanced rate. While that application was still pending, the underlying award on which it was based was itself under appeal in the High Court; the Land Acquisition Collector nonetheless decided the appellants' application in 2000, and when the High Court later further enhanced compensation in 2009, the appellants' second Section 28A application (filed to claim the latest enhanced rate) was rejected by the High Court as an impermissible "second application."

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the general legal principle, settled through a line of its own precedents, that only one application can be filed under Section 28A and that a second application based on a later appellate enhancement is not maintainable. However, it found a crucial flaw specific to this case: when the Collector decided the appellants' original 1992 application in 2000, the underlying award was still under appeal, and settled law required the Collector to keep such applications pending until the appeal was finally decided rather than ruling prematurely. Because the Collector's own error had caused this problem, the Court set aside the Collector's 2000 order and directed that the original 1992 application be reconsidered afresh in light of the High Court's final 2009 judgment, with any already-paid amounts adjusted and the Collector's fresh decision due within three months.

Lesson Learnt

Where a land-acquisition compensation claim is caught up in nested appeals, the deciding authority (the Collector) must wait for the underlying award to become truly final before redetermining compensation: a premature decision can later be set aside and sent back, even years later, for being decided too early rather than too late.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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