The Supreme Court emphasised last week that private land cannot be acquired without adequate reason, invoking the urgency clause in the Land Acquisition Act.

In its judgment in the case, Darshan Lal Nagpal vs government of Delhi, the acquisition was quashed as it was bad in law. There was no urgency and the owner did not get a hearing. The land was acquired for setting up an electric sub station by Delhi Transco Limited.

The Delhi high court had rejected the challenge to the acquisition. The land owner appealed to the Supreme Court where the company submitted that the work for establishing the sub station has been completed to a large extent.

Rejecting the contentions of the company and the government, the court noted that “Compulsory acquisition has generated enormous litigation in the last more than five decades … it must be remembered that compulsory acquisition of property belonging to a private individual is a serious matter and has grave repercussions on his Constitutional right of not being deprived of his property without the sanction of law.”

(Sourced from BS)