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Delhi Development Authority v. Hari Prakash and Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 9719 of 2016)Decided 26 Sept 2016
Civil Appeal No. 9719 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

The Delhi High Court had declared that land acquisition proceedings for land belonging to the respondent had lapsed under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013: a provision that revives landowners' rights where neither possession was taken nor compensation paid for five years or more before the new Act came into force. DDA appealed to the Supreme Court against this declaration.

Decision Breakdown

DDA's own counsel conceded that, although the compensation award had been passed as far back as 2004, possession of the roughly 1 bigha 9 biswas of land had never actually been taken and compensation had never been paid. On that admitted fact, the Supreme Court found no reason to interfere with the High Court's judgment and dismissed the appeal, while clarifying that DDA retained the liberty to start fresh acquisition proceedings under the 2013 Act, and granting it one year to exercise that liberty.

Lesson Learnt

Under the 2013 land acquisition law, if the government neither takes physical possession of acquired land nor pays the compensation for an extended period, the original acquisition itself lapses and the land effectively reverts to the owner, though the government can still start the acquisition process over again from scratch.

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

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