Delhi High Court dismisses petition by heirs of 'displaced persons' from Pakistan challenging land acquisition notifications of 1959

The Delhi High Court recently dismissed a petition challenging two land acquisition notifications issued by the Delhi administration in the year 1959 and 1960..A Division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Gaurang Kanth held that the petition had been filed after an inordinate delay of 62 years despite the fact that petitioners’ predecessors had accepted the enhanced compensation for the land without reserving any right whatsoever.The Court said that it cannot permit the petitioners to alter a settled legal position after six decades when they have remained silent for so long.“The Court cannot permit the Petitioners to alter a settled position after almost six decades, when the Petitioners have remained silent for decades and have accepted the enhanced compensation awarded to them. It is a settled position of law that delay and laches is one of the factors which is to be borne in mind by the High Court while exercising their discretionary powers under Article 226 of the Constitution," the order stated. .The High Court was dealing with a petition filed by the heirs of Dewan Kesho Dass Soni and Radha Kishan Nagpal. Both Soni and Nagpal were ‘displaced persons’ from West Pakistan who came to India after partition.They made a bid for the ‘evacuee property’ measuring 10 bighas and 16 biswas in Delhi’s Kalu Sarai village and were declared the highest bidder. But despite the issuance of a sale certificate the possession of the evacuee property was never given to them.Two notifications were issued by the Delhi administration on November 13, 1959 and August 18, 1960 under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 acquiring the land.The petitioners’ predecessors accepted the compensation for property under protest and sought enhancement of compensation. The cases regarding enhanced compensation came to an end in the year 2003..The Court said that the petitioners accepted the enhanced compensation without reserving any right whatsoever and law does not permit a person to approbate and reprobate at the same time.“Therefore, now after an inordinate delay of about 62 years after the acquisition, the Petitioners cannot challenge the said acquisition proceedings,” the Court held.The Court added that it was not convinced by the explanation of petitioners for such a substantial and inordinate delay and, therefore, there was no merit in the petition..Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul along with advocates Azmat H Amanullah, Namisha Chaddha, Nitya Sharma, Pritma Suri and Aarzoo Aneja appeared for the petitioners.Advocates Jitesh Vikram Srivastava and Prajesh Vikram Srivastava appeared for the Union.Advocates Manika Tripathy Pandey, Shubham Hasija and Ashutosh Kaushik appeared for the Delhi Development Authority.Advocates Yeeshu Jain and Jyoti Tyagi appeared for the LAC..[Read Order]