SC settles half-a-century old land dispute involving erstwhile Portuguese government

New Delhi, Sep 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday settled a over half-a-decade-old dispute over a land in Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which was once vested in the erstwhile Portuguese government.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and N Kotiswar Singh upheld the Bombay High Court order holding no estoppel against the government in the exercise of its legislative, sovereign, or executive powers.

The high court held as unsustainable the first appellate court’s affirmation of the trial court’s decree on the basis of waiver and acquiescence.

"What is perhaps most striking about the instant case is not merely that this Court is called upon to adjudicate a dispute originating over half a century ago, rather, it is the deeper irony that, even after seventy-eight years of independence, this Court remains engaged in resolving a controversy arising out of land rights conferred by colonial powers that once exploited this nation's wealth and resources," the bench said in its 78-page order.

It added that any critique or disquiet this bench may express regarding the colonial legacy must nevertheless not be construed as a reflection on the legitimacy of the appellants’ claims or the rights they seek to assert.

The bench noted that the appeals arise from the high court judgement of February 17, 2005 in an issue relating to the rescission of land grants relating to properties situated in the union territory.

The said properties were parcels of land originally vested in the erstwhile Portuguese government and were granted to the predecessors of appellant Divyagnakumari Harisinh Parmar and others between 1923 and 1930, subject to certain conditions for agricultural cultivation.

These grants were subsequently rescinded by the collector, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, vide April 30, 1974 order, which has set in motion a protracted legal wrangle between the state and the appellants that has spanned several decades.

The bench held that the governing law for determining the nature and extent of the rights in the lands granted to the appellants was the Government Regulation 985, referred to as the "Organic Structure of the Lands of Nagar Haveli" -- brought into force on September 22, 1919 -- to regulate the revenue administration of the Portuguese State, and the inquiry must be confined to its provisions.

The high court’s reversal of the concurrent findings of the courts below does not transgress the limits of its jurisdiction under Section 100 of the CPC, the bench said.

The appellants’ pleas of waiver, acquiescence, delay, impossibility, and condonation, as a result, were held to have no "legal or factual basis".

"None of these principles render the Collector’s order dated April 30, 1974 unsustainable," the top court said.

"The Collector’s order dated April 30, 1974 was not tainted by mala fides and cannot be construed as having been passed with the intent to disentitle the Appellants from the statutory benefits under the 1971 Land Reforms Regulation," it added.

The bench dismissed the appeals as devoid of merit and vacated the status quo order of February 24, 2006. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK