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Delhi Development Authority vs. Bhagwat Singh & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 1153Decided 2 Nov 2022
Civil Appeal No. 7961 of 2022
M.R. Shah · M.M. Sundresh

Background

The Delhi High Court had declared that a land acquisition by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had lapsed under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, relying on the Supreme Court's earlier decision in Pune Municipal Corporation v. Harakchand Misirimal Solanki, on the ground that compensation had not been paid to the landowners. The DDA had argued before the High Court that it had already taken possession of the land. The DDA appealed the High Court's lapse finding to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the Pune Municipal Corporation decision relied on by the High Court had since been overruled by a five-judge Constitution Bench in Indore Development Authority v. Manoharlal (2020), which clarified that under Section 24(2), "or" between possession and compensation must be read as "nor"/"and", meaning a lapse occurs only if both possession has not been taken and compensation has not been paid; if either one has been done, there is no lapse. Since the High Court's ruling rested entirely on the now-overruled precedent, the Supreme Court quashed the High Court's judgment and dismissed the original writ petition, allowing the DDA's appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A land acquisition is deemed to have lapsed under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act only if the authorities failed on both counts, neither took possession nor paid compensation, for five years or more; taking possession alone (even without paying compensation) is enough to prevent a lapse.

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

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