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Nachhatar Singh Etc. Etc. v. The State of Punjab & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 45Decided 22 Jan 2018
Civil Appeal Nos. 785-789 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

The appellants had challenged land acquisition-related orders of the Punjab & Haryana High Court (arising from several connected writ petitions, CWP Nos. 5312/2014, 5028/2014, 2901/2014, 2645/2014 and 2370/2014) concerning compensation. By the time this matter reached the Supreme Court, the Court had already decided the identical underlying legal issue in a connected lead case, Civil Appeal Nos. 16372-16373 of 2017, by a judgment dated 1 November 2017.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court granted permission to file the (belated) special leave petition, condoned the delay, allowed a substitution application, and granted leave to appeal. It then held that the issue raised in these appeals stood concluded by its earlier judgment dated 1 November 2017 in Civil Appeal Nos. 16372-16373 of 2017 and other connected matters, and disposed of these appeals in terms of that judgment, directing the State to pay the compensation due within two months if not already paid. A separate, related set of appeals (Civil Appeal Nos. 17523-17526 of 2017) was taken on board and disposed of on the same basis.

Lesson Learnt

When multiple similarly-placed litigants bring the same legal question to the Supreme Court separately, the Court often decides the issue once in a lead case and then simply applies that ruling to dispose of all the connected/tagged matters, so a short, "follows the lead judgment" order can still be a complete and final disposal of that individual appellant's own claim, including a concrete deadline for payment.

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

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