Bombay High Court excuses 40-year delay by litigant in approaching court against land acquisition

The Bombay High Court recently condoned a delay of nearly 40 years by certain litigants in approaching the court seeking compensation for the acquisition of their land which was taken over by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (MSEDCL) in April 1984 [Rajeev Bhadani & Ors. v. Executive Engineer, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Ors.]..The Court reasoned that the State cannot evade its responsibility to pay the compensation merely on grounds of delay and laches. A division bench of Justices BP Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan pointed out that possession of the land had been taken without paying any compensation.As such, denying the landowners a right to be heard merely on the ground of delay would be unjust to them, the Court opined.“We find that denying the petitioners an opportunity of their writ petition even being considered merely on the ground of delay would be unjust to the Petitioners. On the other hand, considering the writ petition on merits would not tilt the scale against MSEDCL and the State. The State cannot, on the ground of delay and laches, evade its responsibility towards those from whom private property has been expropriated,” the Court said..By way of background, a family from Thane (Bhadani family) approached the High Court for relief after recently discovering that a plot of their land was seemingly usurped by the MSEDCL in 1984 to set up a sub-station and staff quarters without the payment of appropriate compensation.The MSEDCL claimed that they had undertaken land acquisition proceedings in 1986 after taking possession of the land in 1984. The sub-station was erected in 1993, it was contended.The State company argued that the compensation plea by the petitioners (the Bhadani family) was vitiated since was filed after a delay of nearly 40 years. .The Court, however, disagreed with MSEDCL's stance and found that the petitioners had made out a case for receiving compensation.However, the Court said that it could not direct MSEDCL to vacate the plot or hand over the same to the petitioners.“Multiple stakeholders have an interest in the use to which the subject land has been put, and there can be no question of granting such relief," the Court explained in its January 5 order.Therefore, the Court proceeded to order the Collector of Thane to compute the compensation payable to the petitioners under the provisions of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and pass a compensation award within three months. .Senior Advocate Vishwajit Sawant with advocates Vipul Makwana and Yatin R Shah appeared for Bhadani family (petitioners).Advocates Deepa Chawan, Ruchi Patil, Amita Kamble briefed by Kshitija Wadatkar Associates appeared for MSEDCL.Advocates Sandesh Patil and Chintan Shah appeared for Unit Arsens Developers.Additional government pleader AI Patel with RS Pawar appeared for the State..[Read order]