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Rajaram Abasaheb Deshmukh vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 1170Decided 4 Nov 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 8014-8015 of 2022
M.R. Shah · M.M. Sundresh

Background

Land meant for project-affected persons under a rehabilitation scheme was first allotted to one claimant (Kaluram Jadhav) and later re-allotted to the appellant, Rajaram Deshmukh, after a remand by the High Court. When the appellant's name was not mutated in revenue records despite the fresh allotment order, both sides filed separate writ petitions before the Bombay High Court, which by a common judgment set aside the fresh allotment orders on the technical ground that the Deputy Collector who passed them lacked jurisdiction at that time, and remanded the matter to the Additional Collector.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court erred in setting aside the fresh allotment orders purely on the jurisdictional ("coram non judice") ground, because the Deputy Collector had been specifically directed by an earlier, now-final High Court order to decide the matter afresh. However, since the High Court had not examined the competing claims on their actual merits, the Supreme Court also declined to decide the merits itself. It quashed the High Court's order (and a subsequent order passed pursuant to it) and remitted both writ petitions to the High Court to be decided afresh strictly on merits, expressing no opinion on who is actually entitled to the land.

Lesson Learnt

A court should not strike down an official's order purely on a jurisdictional technicality if that official was acting under a specific, final direction from a higher court to decide the matter: the underlying dispute should still be examined and decided on its actual merits.

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

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