The Supreme Court has ruled that land acquisition proceedings will not lapse if the authorities have either taken possession of the land or paid compensation to the landowners.

The bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Manoj Misra set aside a Delhi High Court judgment that had quashed proceedings of an acquisition on the ground that compensation had not been paid, despite possession having been taken.

The high court had passed the verdict relying on the Supreme Court judgment in Pune Municipal Corporation and Another vs Harakchand Misirimal Solanki and Others (2014).

This was despite a five-judge constitution bench having in 2020 overruled the 2014 judgment and holding that proceedings under the amended 2013 land acquisition act would not lapse if either compensation had been paid or possession taken by the authorities.

The Centre had challenged the high court verdict before the apex court.

Justice Shah, writing the judgment, underlined that even the landowner, Rajesh Kumar, had admitted before the high court that possession of the agricultural land had been taken on September 22, 1997.

“The deemed lapse of land acquisition proceedings under Section 24(2) of the 2013 act takes place where due to inaction of authorities for five years or more prior to commencement of the said act, the possession of land has not been taken nor compensation has been paid,” the judgment said.

“In other words, in case possession has been taken, compensation has not been paid, then there is no lapse. Similarly, if compensation has been paid, possession has not been taken, then there is no lapse.”

The judgment said the period of subsistence of interim orders passed by the courts had to be excluded in the computation of five years.

The judgment underlined that the 2014 verdict that the high court had relied on had been “overruled by the constitution bench of this court in the case of Indore Development Authority vs Manoharlal and Ors (2020)”.

It said that in terms of the constitution bench ruling, landowners who have refused to accept compensation or sought a reference for higher compensation cannot claim that the acquisition proceedings have lapsed under Section 24(2) of the 2013 act.

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, came into force on January 1, 2014.