Finally A Solution : Supreme Court Settles 50-Year Old Land Dispute In UT Of Dadra And Nagar Haveli

Picture : ANI/X

The Supreme Court has  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.