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Govt. of NCT of Delhi (Land & Building Dept.) v. Mohinder Kaur Anand & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 8722 of 2016)Decided 31 Aug 2016
Civil Appeal No. 8722 of 2016
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice C. Nagappan

Background

Unlike the other cases in this cluster where DDA was the appellant, here it was the Government of NCT of Delhi (through its Land and Building Department) that appealed against Mohinder Kaur Anand and others in a land acquisition dispute raising an identical legal question.

Decision Breakdown

The Court found the issue, in principle, covered against the appellant by its judgment in Civil Appeal No. 8477 of 2016 (arising out of SLP(C) No. 8467 of 2015), and dismissed the appeal accordingly. Given the facts, the appellant was allowed 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 re-initiate acquisition by a fresh Section 11 notification.

Lesson Learnt

The same one-year rule applies regardless of which government body is acquiring land: authorities get one final chance to restart a lapsed acquisition, failing which possession reverts to the original owner.

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

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