Mansukhbhai Dhamjibhai Patel & Anr. v. State of Gujarat & Ors.
Background
The appellants' land had been acquired in 1981 for a dam project. In 2011 they sought release/re-grant of the land under a 2001 Gujarat government resolution that allowed re-grant of acquired land no longer needed for public purpose. Their request was rejected, and the Gujarat High Court held that land once validly acquired for public purpose cannot be re-granted to the original owner, relying on earlier Supreme Court precedent.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that the appellants were not entitled to re-grant of the acquired land, and went further to hold that the State's re-grant policy itself was unconstitutional: it violated Article 14 because it allowed disposal of government land vested in the State without any transparent criteria and without regard to the "doctrine of public trust" governing how public land may be disposed of. The Court directed that the re-grant policy should not be given effect to in future, while leaving the State free to frame a proper rehabilitation policy for persons rendered landless by acquisition, consistent with Article 14.
Lesson Learnt
Government land once acquired for a public purpose cannot simply be handed back to the original owner through ad hoc executive policy; any scheme for disposing of or re-granting public land must be transparent, non-arbitrary, and consistent with the constitutional guarantee of equality: a lesson relevant to anyone whose land was acquired decades ago and who hopes for its return.