Land Cannot Be Kept Under Temporary Acquisition For Years, It Violates Right To Property Under Article 300A : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh have held that, “to continue with the temporary acquisition for number of years would be arbitrary and can be said to be infringing the right to use the property guaranteed under Article 300A of the Constitution of India. Even to continue with the temporary acquisition for a longer period can be said to be unreasonable, infringing the rights of the landowners to deal with and/or use the land.” Factual Background of the Civil AppealThe bench passed the above ruling in a civil appeal where the Appellants, who were also the original writ petitioners and the landowners, had approached the Supreme Court after being aggrieved with the judgment passed by the High Court of Gujarat, which dismissed the writ petition preferred by the appellants for quashing temporary acquisition proceedings. That the land which was the subject matter of the proceedings is under temporary acquisition by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) since the year 1996 for the purposes of oil exploration. This land was undisputedly purchased by the appellant No.1 under a registered sale deed in the year 2005. The land in question falls in the city of Ahmedabad and the prices of the land have increased manyfold and even the surrounding lands in the area are already developed. The appellants contend that they are being paid the rent at the rate of Rs. 24/- per square meter per annum for temporary acquisition.Judicial History of the Civil AppealAppellants first approached the High Court in the year 2016 seeking a direction to the respondents to either acquire the land on permanent basis or release the land from acquisition. The said writ petition was disposed of in 2017 on the stand taken by the respondents that they will initiate the process for acquiring the land permanently. However thereafter no concrete steps were taken to acquire the land permanently. That after the disposal of the writ petition in 2017 and though it was assured that the process for permanently acquiring the land would be initiated, nothing was done thereafter and therefore the appellants again approached the High Court for quashing of the acquisition proceedings and to direct the respondents to release the said land from temporary acquisition and to handover vacant and peaceful possession of the land in question to the appellants. Before the High Court, it was the case on behalf of the appellants that to continue the temporary acquisition for nearly 25 years would be absolutely unreasonable and arbitrary and that too by paying abysmally low rent.The Impugned Judgment and Order passed by the Gujarat High Court The respondents appeared before the High Court and again submitted that the competent authority has accorded approval for acquisition of the subject land on permanent basis and the same is under process. A statement was made on behalf of the ONGC before the High Court that the acquisition proceedings would be concluded within 12 months. An undertaking on behalf of the ONGC was also placed on record. Relying upon the said undertaking, the High Court, by the impugned judgment and order, rejected the prayer for quashing temporary acquisition proceedings and enhanced rent from Rs. 24/- per square meter per annum to Rs. 30/- per square meter per annum.Appellant’s Arguments led by Senior Advocate Gopal ShankaranarayananMr. Shankaranarayanan argued that, “to continue the temporary acquisition for number of years, namely, in the present case, twenty five years and that too on payment of a meagre rent per annum is nothing but arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of right to hold property guaranteed under Article 300A of the Constitution of India.”Another argument forwarded by Mr. Shankaranarayanan on behalf of the Appellants was that the Respondents had given an assurance to the High Court in 2016 that they would acquire the land permanently and that proceedings shall be initiated and on that assurance the High Court had disposed of the earlier writ petition. However, even after a period of six years, no further concrete steps have been taken to acquire the land permanently and the appellants are being paid only a meagre rent at present at the rate of Rs. 30/- per square meter per annum.Respondent’s submissions led by ASG Senior Advocate Vikramjit BanerjeeMr. Banerjee submitted that, “the land in question has been acquired by the ONGC for its oil exploration and production activities on temporary basis. The landowners are being paid the annual rent revised from time to time by the Committee…the appellants are accepting the periodically revised upward rent voluntarily.” Mr. Banerjee further submitted that, “the proposal detailing number of acquisition to be made at Ahmedabad Asset of ONGC is pending approval from the Executive Committee/ONGC Board… therefore the process for permanent acquisition was put on hold…Respondent-ONGC needs more time to make the acquisition process in conformity with 2013 Act, ...

Land Cannot Be Kept Under Temporary Acquisition For Years, It Violates Right To Property Under Article 300A : Supreme Court

Anurag Tiwary

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