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State of Gujarat & Ors. vs. Jayantibhai Ishwarbhai Patel

SLP(C) · 2023 INSC 253Decided 17 Mar 2023
SLP(C) Nos. 34752-53 of 2016
M.R. Shah · Manoj Misra

Background

The respondent's land was acquired in 1991-92 for resettling people displaced by the Narmada Project, and a consent award fixing compensation was passed in 1993. The landowner later had a change of heart, refused to accept the compensation offered, and asked the authorities to release the land from acquisition, which was initially allowed in 1995. In 2009, the Assistant Commissioner cancelled that 1995 order and revived the original compensation order, and the landowner was again called upon to accept payment in 2010, but instead challenged the acquisition in the Gujarat High Court, which ruled that the acquisition had lapsed under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act since neither compensation had been paid nor possession taken over all these years.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reversed the High Court, applying the Constitution Bench ruling in Indore Development Authority v. Manoharlal (2020). It held that a deemed lapse under Section 24(2) requires that the acquiring authority itself be at fault for failing to both pay compensation and take possession, but here, the compensation had been duly offered and the landowner himself had refused to accept it, and possession had been taken by drawing a panchnama (spot memorandum) at the time of the consent award, which the Indore Development Authority ruling recognizes as legally valid. Since a landowner who refuses tendered compensation cannot later claim the acquisition lapsed for non-payment, and possession had been validly taken on paper even though the landowner continued physically cultivating the land, neither of the two conditions for a deemed lapse was satisfied. The High Court's judgment quashing the acquisition was set aside, and the original 1993 consent award was restored, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A landowner who refuses compensation that was validly offered under a land acquisition award cannot later use that same refusal as a ground to claim the acquisition has lapsed: the "lapse" protection under Section 24(2) exists to penalize the government's inaction, not to reward a landowner's own refusal to accept payment.

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

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