The Supreme Court has ended uncertainty prevailing over a 56-year old decision of the Centre to acquire land belonging to persons who evacuated and went to Pakistan. The land situated in Delhi measured upto over 180 acres and was challenged by owners of the land on the ground that it was “evacuee” property. Under law, evacuee property is exempted from acquisition.
The issue became crucial as the Delhi High Court in 2004 had set aside the Centre’s acquisition order of November 13, 1959. The lieutenant Governor who is the chairman of Delhi Development Authority challenged this order in apex court claiming that the HC failed to see that any land once acquired under the land Acquisition Act will lose its character.
Dealing with the appeal, the Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant felt substance in the Centre’s argument and set aside the HC decision. The land was acquired under Section 12 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954 (DPCR Act). Counsel for the Government Rachna Srivastava submitted that any land acquired under this Act will fall into a common pool from which the Government was free to sell, auction or provide to rehabilitate displaced persons. The fact that the land was evacuee property made no difference to the acquisition. In this case a decision was taken to transfer the property to displaced persons.
The land in question was two bighas and 14 biswas in village Basai Darapur which roughly would measure to 180 acres in area located around Punjabi Bagh and Najafgarh.
The court held, “After the issuance of the notification under Section 12 of the DPCR Act, the property vests in the Central Government.” It added that “In the face of the clear provisions of the enactments and the respective schemes contemplated there under, it is difficult to hold that the evacuee property continues to retain such status after issuance of the notification under Section 12 of the DPCR Act.”
Subsequently, the court observed that the subject land ceased to be evacuee property after publication of the notification of acquisition on which there could be no further challenge.