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Indore Development Authority v. Shailendra (Dead) Through Its LRs. And Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 115Decided 8 Feb 2018
Civil Appeal No. 20982 of 2017
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

This judgment answers questions referred to a three-judge bench; it does not decide the individual appeals. The questions concerned Section 24(2) of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act: whether depositing compensation in the government Treasury counts as payment, how possession is taken, whether stale claims revive, and whether time covered by interim court orders is excluded.

Decision Breakdown

This is not a final judgment in the individual appeals. By majority, the Court held that compensation tendered and deposited in the Treasury counts as paid, so the acquisition does not lapse on that ground, and that time covered by interim orders is to be excluded. It held the earlier decision in Pune Municipal Corporation to be wrongly decided on this point. The correctness of this ruling was later referred to a Constitution Bench.

Lesson Learnt

This ruling narrowed when old land acquisitions lapse. The question was later settled by a five-judge bench in 2020.

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

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