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Nareshbhai Bhagubhai v. Union of India

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 895Decided 13 Aug 2019
Civil Appeal No. 6270 of 2019
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

Landowners in several Gujarat villages had their land notified for acquisition for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor railway project. They objected to the acquisition process before the Gujarat High Court, which dismissed their writ petitions, and they then appealed to the Supreme Court along with land-owners from three connected cases raising the same issue: essentially whether the statutory acquisition procedure under the Railways Act had been properly followed.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the Railways Act's mandatory procedural safeguards (allowing objections before acquisition) had been breached in respect of these appellants' specific stretch of land. However, considering that construction had already proceeded and third-party rights had been created over the broader 131 km corridor, and that only a small 6 km stretch was in dispute, the Court declined to set aside the entire acquisition. Instead, it moulded relief by directing that the appellants be paid enhanced compensation assessed at the current market value of the land, while expressly confining this relief only to the appellants before it and not creating a precedent for other unchallenged portions of the acquisition.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a court finds a real breach of the proper acquisition procedure, it may, balancing practical realities like completed construction and third-party rights, choose to award enhanced monetary compensation rather than unwind the whole project; such tailored relief benefits only those who actually come to court, so landowners who do not challenge an acquisition in time cannot later claim the same benefit.

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

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