Whether Municipality can own the property, on basis of alleged surrender, of a person without giving him the compensation?

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Shubham Budhiraja[1]

 

Mr. A given his land to the municipality on premise that he will be compensated if he allows construction for road purpose. Having denied so, he filed writ petition whereby HC held that there is no surrender of land however division bench held that burden is on A to show that land was not surrendered. The apex court held that two conditions to take away right to property, one being public purpose and other being compensation. Burden is on municipality to show that property was surrendered free of cost. In absence of any evidence, there is violation of Article 300A[2].

 

(I)                 Article 300A clearly mandates that no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law. In the present case, we do not find, under which authority of law, the land of the appellants was taken and they were deprived of the same. If the Panchayat and the PWD failed to produce any evidence that appellants have surrendered their lands voluntarily, depriving the appellants of the property would be in violation of Article 300-A of the Constitution.

 

(II)               A Constitution Bench of this Court in the case of K.T. Plantation Private Limited and another vs. State of Karnataka (2011)9 SCC 1 apart from others, dealt with an issue relating to payment of compensation where a person is deprived of his property after deletion of Article 31(2). It lay down that there are two requirements to be fulfilled while depriving a person of his property. Requirement of public purpose is a pre-condition and right to claim compensation is also inbuilt in Article 300-A.

 

(III)             Construction/widening of road no doubt would be a public purpose but there being no justification for not paying compensation the action of the respondents would be arbitrary, unreasonable and clearly violative of Article 300-A of the Constitution.

 


[1] Advocate, Delhi High Court, Shubhambudhiraja02@gmail.com

[2] CIVIL APPEAL NO(s). 3189 OF 2022

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