Bengaluru: Karnataka high court has held that when state govt takes private land without lawful acquisition, it must grant compensation. The issue related to nine guntas of land at Haradagere village in Gubbi taluk of Tumakuru district which state govt has used since 1957. Three guntas were used for a school building and six guntas for a road.Justice M Nagaprasanna directed revenue department and Tumakuru deputy commissioner to determine compensation under the provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and to pass necessary orders within three months of receipt of a copy of the order.In 2017, HP Ramesh executed a registered gift deed in favour of his daughter, HR Sushmita, covering two acres and eight guntas of land. He discovered from official records that part of his family’s land was used by state govt for a school in 1957. Ramesh submitted multiple representations seeking compensation for the land used for the school building and the front road, and finally approached the high court, which issued a direction to consider his representations.On Nov 8, 2021, the DC rejected his representations, stating that the petitioner’s father voluntarily surrendered that piece of land for the construction of the school. Ramesh and his daughter challenged the rejection, arguing that since state govt had admitted that their land was used for the school and road, they were entitled to compensation.State govt submitted that about six decades ago, the petitioner’s father had voluntarily surrendered the land in question and that the claim by the petitioners was barred by the statute of limitations.After reviewing the records and several Supreme Court judgments, Justice Nagaprasanna observed that no individual’s private property should be wrested away by state except through due process of law. He held that in light of the state’s own admission that the land was used without recourse to lawful acquisition, compensation must inevitably follow.
