President, Vidya Prasarak Samithi, Ramdurg v. Deputy Commissioner, Belgaum District & Ors.
Background
Two educational trusts in Ramdurg, Karnataka, the appellant Vidya Prasarak Samithi and Basaveshwar Vidya Vardhak Sangha ("BVVS"), contested rights over a plot of government land (CTS No. 1674/1) each wanted as a playground. Revenue authorities initially granted the land to the appellant, a decision that was challenged, remanded for fresh inquiry more than once, and ultimately upheld administratively, until a Karnataka High Court Division Bench set the grant aside, holding that BVVS already owned the land because the Government had earlier transferred the entire school property (including this playground) to BVVS for market value when it handed over management of the Government school to BVVS in 1966-67, meaning the land was never available for grant to anyone else in the first place.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court examined the documentary chain showing that the property, including the playground, had been formally transferred to BVVS's management along with the school, with the market value duly paid and a trust deed registered, establishing BVVS's ownership. Agreeing with the High Court Division Bench's reasoning, the Court held that once ownership of the land had already vested in BVVS, the land was not available for the Revenue authorities to grant to any other institution, including the appellant. It therefore upheld the High Court's order setting aside the grant in favour of the appellant and dismissed the appeal.
Lesson Learnt
A government authority cannot grant land to an applicant if that very land has already been legally transferred to, and paid for by, another party: prior, documented ownership defeats a later administrative "grant" of the same property, however many rounds of departmental appeals upheld that grant along the way.