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Delhi Development Authority v. Nirmal Kanta Kohli & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 9336 of 2016)Decided 19 Sept 2016
Civil Appeal No. 9336 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

This is a companion matter to the DDA's land-acquisition appeals decided the same month (see, e.g., Civil Appeal No. 9603 of 2016, Prama Bhandari). The Delhi Development Authority appealed against a ruling affecting land it had sought to acquire, and the Court found the point already covered against DDA by two of its own earlier decisions (Civil Appeal No. 8477 of 2016 and Civil Appeal No. 5811 of 2015).

Decision Breakdown

Following its own precedent, the Supreme Court dismissed DDA's appeal. However, as in the companion cases, it gave DDA one year to initiate fresh land acquisition proceedings under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, by issuing a fresh Section 11 notification. If DDA failed to do so within that year and remained in possession, it would have to return physical possession of the land to the original owner.

Lesson Learnt

Once a land acquisition is held to have lapsed, the acquiring authority is given only a defined window to restart the process properly: it cannot indefinitely hold onto land acquired under a lapsed proceeding.

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

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