Bihari (Dead) Thru Lrs v. The State of Uttar Pradesh
Background
The original landowners' land was acquired, and a reference court initially fixed compensation at Rs. 6 per square yard. In 2012, the Allahabad High Court enhanced this to Rs. 28.12 per square yard. Instead of the landowners, it was the State that would ordinarily be aggrieved by an enhancement, but here the landowners themselves filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in 2018, six years after the High Court's order, seeking still higher compensation.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on two independent grounds. First, the six-year delay in approaching the Court was unexplained and, following its own precedent, fatal to the petition. Second, the landowners had already accepted and withdrawn the enhanced compensation deposited by the State without protest, which undercut their claim of grievance. On merits, the Court noted that on the very same day, in a connected batch of appeals concerning land acquired for the identical purpose under the same 1976 notification, it had already fixed Rs. 28.12 per square yard as the appropriate rate, so there was no additional case for a higher rate. The petition was dismissed on both delay and merits; an application to bring the legal heirs of a deceased petitioner on record was allowed.
Lesson Learnt
An unexplained multi-year delay in approaching the Supreme Court will usually be fatal to a case regardless of its underlying merits, and accepting compensation or relief from the other side without protest can weaken a later claim for more.