Govt can't arbitrarily restrict land use by its owner: SC

Govt can't arbitrarily restrict land use by its owner: SC The Supreme Court has said the Government cannot arbitrarily restrict the use of a land by its owner as it would severely curtail his right to possess property. "The power to restrict the use of land by the owners thereof is a drastic power. The designation or reservation of the land and its use results in severe abridgment of the right to property," a bench of Justices S H Kapadia and B Sudershan Reddy observed on Wednesday. The ruling assumes significance as under the garb of revising a development plan the substantial right conferred upon the owner of the land or a person interested therein cannot be taken away by the Government. It said public orders made by authorities are meant to have public effect and must be construed objectively with reference to the language used in the order. The apex court passed the orders while quashing as "ultra vires" (unconstitutional) a Gujarat Government notification to "designate" certain residential lands for "educational use" in Surat Town. As more than 20 years had lapsed since the land had been acquired, the bench directed the State Government to forthwith return the land to the aggrieved persons, Bhikubhai Vithalbhai Patel and others "without any further hurdle in the matter." The aggrieved land owners had filed the special leave petition (SLP) after the Gujarat High Court upheld the validity of the two notifications issued by the State Government on 22nd July and 28th September 2004 under which the administration sought to "designate" the land for South Gujarat University. According to the appellants, on 31st March 1986 the State Government brought out a development plan for acquiring their land for the purpose of setting up a South Gujarat University. But for almost a decade years neither the Surat Urban Development Authority nor the University took any steps to acquire their land. After waited for over a decade, the land owners served notice on the Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA) and the Government to acquire their land within six months. However, SUDA in purported exercise of its power under Section 21 of the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act sought to revise the development plan by reserving the lands in question once again for an education complex of South Gujarat University. The aggrieved land owners approached the High Court which dismissed their plea following which they appealed in the apex court. Upholding the appeal, the apex court said the State could not furnish any material which had enabled the Government to form an opinion that substantial modifications in the plan for re-designating the land for the said university. The apex court noted that the day on which the Minister took the decision to designate the land again for the South Gujarat University, he had the opinion of the Chief Town Planner and an official note which suggested that the land did not need to be earmarked for the varsity. "The record does not reveal that there has been any consideration by the State Government that necessity had arisen to make substantial modifications to the draft development plan," the bench observed.

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