-Report by Harsh Singh Rajput
In the case of Delhi Development Authority and Govt. of NCT of Delhi vs Batti and others, the respondents in this case i.e., Batti and others filed a writ petition in Delhi high court to claim the compensation of the land which was taken by them 20 years back for the development project and later the two authorities i.e., plaintiffs appeal before SC against the compensation requested by respondents.
FACTS:
Delhi development authority and Govt. of NCT of Delhi appeal before the SC with the Civil Appeal no 2402/2008. Under section 4 of the land acquisition act, 1894(for short ‘the Act’) an order was passed on 23-06-1989 for the acquisition of land measuring about 3,500 hectares for the development of part of Delhi and this order was further followed up by notification under sec 6 of ‘the Act’ on 20 June 1990.
The respondent was the wife of Mange Ram who was the son of the Late Harkesh. The issue was that the late Father-in-law of respondent i.e., Mr. Harkesh was asserted as the owner of the 1/12th share i.e., (01 bighas and 19 biswas and 03 biswansi from the land area measuring upto 23 bights and 2 biswas having khasra no. 281/4(10-11). 282/4(10-3) and 80(2-8)).
Now writ petition was filed by the respondent in 2015. They stated that the other party hasn’t paid them the compensation and also the possession of land hasn’t been taken and the acquisition has lapsed. But the high court stated that the land was handed over to the forest department as per the facts after the possession of the land was taken. And it was taken because the land comes under the ‘O’ zone. And HC also stated the fact that land was also vested in Gaon Sabha. Therefore, the respondent will not be given any compensation and due to the dispute over the titles regarding land, the issue related to compensation was kept open.
The constitution bench stated two conditions to prove the acquisition which are as follows:
- Taking over the possession of the land or,
- Payment of compensation
And the bench stated that from the facts, we came to know that the acquisition was done after the land was taken in possession, and due to the dispute in the title, the HC also had kept the question of title open.
The question of acquisition which was holdup by the Delhi high court in this case by relying upon the judgment of this court (SC) in the case of Pune municipal corporate and another’s case ‘supra’ was overruled by relying on the judgment of this court in the Indore Development Authority.
RESPONDENT’S CONTENTION:
Learned counsel on behalf of the respondent provided the facts that respondent no. 1 is the daughter-in-law of later. Harkesh. Harkesh was entitled to compensation as he was the owner of the land as per the records and he also have the Bhoomidari rights. And they submitted that the land was not been taken up also by the authorities.
JUDGEMENT:
The honourable Supreme Court allowed the present appeals of the plaintiff and stated that there will not be any compensation to the predecessor or respondent due to the dispute regarding the title of the land, also the land was found to be recorded in the name of Gaon Sabha.
Also, there were no records of any action or step for seeking compensation on behalf of the respondents and the person who owned the land 20 years ago. So by putting aside the impugned order of HC, the present appeals are allowed and the writ petition of respondents in HC is dismissed.
READ FULL JUDGEMENT: https://bit.ly/3ZdLcPQ