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Land Acquisition Collector (M.E.) & Anr. vs B.S. Dhillon & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 214Decided 13 Mar 2023
Civil Appeal No. 1597 of 2023
M.R. Shah · C.T. Ravikumar

Background

An award for acquiring certain land was made way back in 1992 under the old Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The landowners approached the Delhi High Court, which relied on an earlier Supreme Court ruling (Pune Municipal Corporation vs Harakchand Misirimal Solanki) to hold that the acquisition had "lapsed" under Section 24(2) of the 2013 land acquisition law because possession/compensation formalities were allegedly not completed within the stipulated period. The Land Acquisition Collector challenged this before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the High Court's reliance on the Pune Municipal Corporation judgment was no longer valid because a five-judge Constitution Bench in Indore Development Authority vs Manoharlal (2020) had specifically overruled that earlier precedent. The Constitution Bench clarified that under Section 24(2), a lapse occurs only when authorities fail to take possession AND fail to pay compensation for five years or more before 1 January 2014; if either possession was taken or compensation was tendered, there is no lapse. Applying this settled position, the Court held that since possession of the land had been taken by the authorities, there was no deemed lapse of the acquisition proceedings. The High Court's order was therefore quashed, and the appeal was allowed with no costs.

Lesson Learnt

Land acquisition proceedings do not automatically lapse merely because compensation formalities were incomplete. If the government has already taken possession of the land, that alone defeats a claim of "lapse" under the 2013 Act, per the binding Constitution Bench ruling in Indore Development Authority.

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

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