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R. Rajashekar v. Trinity House Build Coop. Society

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 9091-9119 of 2016)Decided 15 Sept 2016
Civil Appeal Nos. 9091-9119 of 2016
Justice V. Gopala Gowda · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel

Background

Agricultural lands belonging to poor farmers near Bangalore were sought to be acquired in favour of a housing cooperative society (Trinity House Building Co-Operative Society) under a 1985 agreement that appointed a middleman to act as an agent between the landowners, the society, and the State Government. A single judge of the Karnataka High Court quashed the acquisition notifications as invalid, but a Division Bench later reversed that and upheld the acquisition, prompting multiple sets of appeals, by purchasers claiming title through the middleman's sale deeds, and by some original landowners, to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the sale transactions executed by the middleman (purportedly transferring the acquired agricultural lands to various purchasers) were illegal and void ab initio, being contrary to restrictions on the transfer of agricultural land and executed without proper legal authority. The Court set aside the Division Bench's judgment and restored the original single judge's order quashing the acquisition notifications, granting relief to the original landowners and to the landowner-appellants in the connected appeals. It also rejected applications for impleadment filed by a power-of-attorney holder, holding he had no standing to intervene at that late stage. The Deputy Commissioner and police authorities were directed to assist in ensuring the landowners' restored possession was actually implemented.

Lesson Learnt

Sale transactions of agricultural land carried out through a middleman's power of attorney, especially where they circumvent statutory restrictions on transferring such land, can be struck down as void from the outset: a power of attorney does not override specific statutory bars on agricultural land transfers.

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

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