Urban Land Ceiling Act | Landholder Can't Claim Protection To Retain Surplus Land If Possession Was Taken Before Repeal Act: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that a landholder cannot claim the protection of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999 to retain surplus land where possession had already been taken under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 before the Repeal Act came into force. The Court also held that a writ petition challenging such ceiling proceedings, filed more than a decade after possession was taken, is liable to be dismissed on the ground of delay and laches.The bench of Justice Neeraj Tiwari and Justice Sudhanshu Chauhan held that possession of the land had stood transferred to the Kanpur Development Authority before the Repeal Act, 1999 came into force, and that the petitioners' inordinate delay in approaching the Court independently defeated their claim.Petitioners claimed that their predecessors were the recorded tenure holders of land measuring 1.004 hectares across four plots at Village Bara Sirohi, Tehsil Sadar, District Kanpur Nagar. Though ceiling proceedings had been initiated under the Act of 1976, they submitted that they had remained in possession throughout, that no compensation was ever paid, and that they were therefore entitled to protection under the Repeal Act, 1999.Petitioners relied on government orders dated 02.02.2000 and 09.08.2000, under which landholders whose land had not been taken over by the time the Repeal Act, 1999 was enforced would continue to remain in possession.To show possession, petitioners filed irrigation receipts, the latest of 2015, and photographs. They approached the High Court seeking a direction restraining the respondents from dispossessing them and expunging the Urban Ceiling entries from the revenue records.Counsel for the State argued that the landholders had not filed a ceiling return under Section 6(1) of the Act, 1976. A notice under Section 6(2) was issued to the petitioners, and on their continued default the land was declared surplus under Section 8(4) on 31.03.1997. After proceedings under Sections 9 and 10, a notification under Section 10(3) was published and notice under Section 10(5) was served, and on the landholders' failure to hand over possession, it was taken under Section 10(6) by a Dakhalnama (possession memo) dated 11.02.1999, i.e., before the Repeal Act, 1999 came into force. It was argued that the land was thereafter transferred to the Kanpur Development Authority, recorded in its name in the revenue records in 1998, and developed under its “Jawaharpuram” housing scheme, with residential plots already allotted.Examining the Dakhalnama, the Court noted that it bore the signatures of both the person handing over and the Naib Tehsildar taking over possession, and recorded the date as 11.02.1999. Petitioners had not disputed those signatures and had objected only that the possession memo was not signed by witnesses. The Court noted that the petitioners had admitted that the land had been recorded in the Authority's name in 1998, after the surplus land vested in the State on publication of the notification under Section 10(3).“We also fail to understand as to what took the petitioners 12 years to file the present writ petition, once, the petitioners were aware of the order dated 25.07.1998 by means of which the land in dispute was recorded in the name of respondent no. 3 – Authority, the petitioners themselves having filed the of revenue authorities orders along with the writ petition.” Further, the Court held that the irrigation receipts and photographs did not establish possession. The receipts ran only up to 2011 with one for 2015, were not in consonance with the revenue records which had carried the Authority's name since 1998 and could be obtained merely by depositing the amounts payable, held the Court. The Court also noted that a coordinate bench, in Jagdish Chandra v. State of U.P., had dismissed a similar challenge concerning land in the same village, a decision against which the Special Leave Petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court.The Court held that the writ petition filed in 2010, about 11 years after possession was taken and 12 years after the land was recorded in the Authority's name, was barred by delay and laches. The Supreme Court in State of Assam v. Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma held, “If the owner did not do so, forcible taking over of possession would acquire legitimacy by sheer lapse of time. In any such situation the owner or the person in possession must be deemed to have waived his right under Section 10(5) of the Act.”Holding that possession had passed to the Authority before the Repeal Act, 1999 came into force and that the petitioners had approached the Court after a substantial delay, the Court dismissed the writ petition.Case Title: Krishna Kumar Mishra And Ors. v. State Of U.P. Thru. P.S. Admin. And Ors.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Urban Land Ceiling Act | Landholder Can't Claim Protection To Retain Surplus Land If Possession Was Taken Before Repeal Act: Allahabad High Court

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Urban Land Ceiling Act | Landholder Can't Claim Protection To Retain Surplus Land If Possession Was Taken Before Repeal Act: Allahabad High Court

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