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Delhi Development Authority v. Jaswant Singh

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 8702 of 2016)Decided 31 Aug 2016
Civil Appeal No. 8702 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice C. Nagappan

Background

This is one of a batch of near-identical DDA land acquisition appeals decided on the same day. DDA appealed against an order favouring the respondent landowner, and the appeal raised, in principle, the same issue already decided against DDA in an earlier case (Civil Appeal No.8477 of 2016).

Decision Breakdown

The Court granted leave and dismissed DDA's appeal, following its earlier ruling on the identical point. DDA was given one year to exercise its liberty under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to initiate fresh acquisition proceedings by issuing a Section 11 notification; failing that, if DDA was in possession, it had to return physical possession of the land to the original owner.

Lesson Learnt

Where an acquisition is found deficient under the 2013 Act, the authority gets a strict one-year deadline to redo the process correctly, or the land goes back to its original owner.

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

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