Act together over land acquisition cases: SC tells DDA, Delhi govt

The court slammed the agencies concerned over the lack of coordination over filing of appeals in land acquisition cases

Complete lack of coordination between the Delhi government and Centre over filing appeals in land acquisition cases is leading to unnecessary litigation, the Supreme Court remarked in a recent case as it directed the concerned departments – the Delhi government’s land and building department and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) — to get their act together and come out with a standard operating procedure (SOP), reminding both that they are not “separate islands”.

The court directed the land and building department and DDA to file separate affidavits by end of July and asked the commissioner to remain present through the virtual mode on the next date of hearing as well. (AP)

The order came in a matter heard last week where the Delhi government’s land and building department approached the top court arguing that a land acquisition process in 2005 upheld by the Delhi high court in July 2015 fell through after the original landowners — a group of 8-10 villagers — did not want to sell their land.

The villagers informed the court that the DDA had already filed an appeal against the same high court order that got dismissed by the Supreme Court in December 2016.

A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Rajesh Bindal in its order dated May 16 said, “We are constrained to observe that on the basis of what we have seen in several such cases, there is a complete lack of coordination between the Delhi government and the DDA when it comes to filing special leave petitions (SLP) based on the decision of the Constitution Bench judgment in the case of Indore Development Authority vs. Manohar Lal (2020).”

Appearing for the DDA, additional solicitor general ASG Madhavi Divan said, “It is a case of not getting our act together. But it is not deliberate.” She further informed that an SOP has been proposed to deal with this situation.

Interestingly, DDA filed a 17-page counter affidavit which made no mention of the dismissed appeal. Peeved by this “suppression”, the court had in April directed DDA’s commissioner Vikas Singh to be present through videoconferencing on May 16. The DDA, in a supplementary affidavit, explained that against the December 2016 dismissal order, it had filed a review petition which is still pending in the top court.

DDA said that pursuant to a series of orders passed by the Delhi high court setting aside the acquisition of several lands, a committee of senior DDA officers, including chief engineer, superintending engineer, was formed to identify cases where re-acquisition is to be made and where fresh acquisition was not required, and no appeal was to be filed. The top court was surprised that such a crucial fact had not surfaced in any of the acquisition cases involving DDA and Delhi government brought before it.

Posting the matter for August 1, the bench said, “Both the state government and the DDA will have to come clean before the court and place all the material on record including the recommendations of the committee and the decisions taken by the DDA on the basis of the recommendations of the committee.”

Further, the bench asked the DDA and Delhi government to examine all such cases where, contrary to the recommendations of the committee, SLPs were filed in the top court. “Why government does not consult DDA and why DDA is not consulting government. After all, they are not separate islands.”

The court asked the DDA commissioner present during the hearing, “If you had accepted the recommendations of your committee, you would not be wasting public money on litigation. The recommendations of the committee must be brought on record as it will affect several other cases before us.”

The court directed the land and building department and DDA to file separate affidavits by end of July and asked the commissioner to remain present through the virtual mode on the next date of hearing as well.