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Government of NCT of Delhi v. Satish Kumar Aggarwal

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 8935 of 2016)Decided 8 Sept 2016
Civil Appeal No. 8935 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

This batch of appeals was filed by the Government of NCT of Delhi (and connected requisitioning authorities) challenging Delhi High Court rulings that favoured landowners in a dispute over acquisition proceedings that had stalled for years. A closely related batch of appeals filed by the Delhi Development Authority on the very same point of law had already been dismissed by the Supreme Court shortly before in Civil Appeal No. 8477 of 2016.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the legal issue in this appeal was squarely covered against the appellant (Government of NCT of Delhi) by the Court's own recent ruling in Civil Appeal No. 8477 of 2016, which had already rejected the same argument when raised by the Delhi Development Authority. Following that precedent, the Court dismissed this entire batch of appeals (Civil Appeal No. 8935/2016 and connected matters, explicitly listed in the judgment's caption). As relief, the appellant-authority was given one year's 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 fresh Section 11 notification, failing which it was directed to return physical possession of the land to the original owners.

Lesson Learnt

When land acquisition proceedings are found to have lapsed under the 2013 Act, the acquiring authority does not automatically lose the land forever: it gets a defined window (here, one year) to restart acquisition properly, but if it misses that window, possession must revert to the original landowner.

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

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