NEW DELHI: Holding that govt can acquire land from citizens only for public purpose and not for the benefit of some person or organisation, Supreme Court Monday quashed a 1988 acquisition of about 59 acres of land near Bengaluru by Karnataka govt for a cooperative housing society and restored the land to its owners after 38 years.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran held that the whole process of land acquisition is indicating “the fraud played on unsuspecting citizens”. It said that illegal acquisitions were made through fraud and undue influence and directed the state govt to pay Rs 50,000 to all litigant landowners who had challenged the process.“Condemnation of privately owned land for public purpose can only be with authority of law and with just compensation being paid. That such authority of law can be exercised only for public purpose is without cavil, with just compensation being an ancillary right, which does not by itself justify an acquisition. However just the compensation be, if the authority of law is lacking or the public purpose is absent, there can be no eminent domain exercised,” the court said.SC upheld the single-bench HC order,which said that it was at the instigation of middlemen that the state employed its machinery to acquire land for the society.
