Land Laws – Free grant of land to person from Scheduled Caste community – Such land sold to appellant in violation of Rules under the Mysore Land Revenue Code – Post the transaction, the 1978 Act came into force on 01.01.1979 – Respondent No.4 claims to be the grandson of the original grantee – Neither the original owner, nor his son or the grandson/respondent No.4 laid any claim for the land of appellant for annulment of transfer till 04.10.2000 when an application was filed before the Assistant Commissioner u/s.4 of the Act of 1978 – The Assistant Commissioner passed an order invalidating the sale and seeking to restore the land to respondent No.4 – Propriety – Held: Widest amplitude must be given to protect the rights of the SC/ ST community by construing the enactment (Act of 1978) liberally in their favour to achieve the objective with which it was enacted – But there can be exceptions such as the present case, where despite the clear bar of Rule 43(8) [since the transaction in question was much before the Act of 1978 came into force] an extraordinary time period had elapsed – The transaction took place on 20.12.1971, seven years before the Act of 1978 came into force – Respondent No.4 was born some time in 1967 and thus, would have attained majority around the year 1985 – At that stage at least he was aware and entitled to enforce the rights which he claims were deprived of by transfer of land by a registered document by his grandfather – He did not do so and in fact his father also never did so – It is after a lapse of another 12 years from even his attaining majority that respondent No.4 sought to exercise the rights – The period of delay was 21 years from the date the Act of 1978 came into force and 30 years from the transaction – Inordinate delay cannot be condoned and the period of delay can by no stretch of imagination be said to be reasonable – Resultantly, impugned orders of the Assistant Commissioner set aside – The land would continue to vest with the appellant(s) – Rules under the Mysore Land Revenue Code – Rule 43(8) – Karnataka Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition on Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 – s.4 – Delay / Laches. Vivek M. Hinduja & Ors. v. M. Ashwatha & Ors. (2020)
14 SCC 228; Nekkanti Rama Lakshmi v. State of
Karnataka & Anr. (2020) 14 SCC 232 – relied on. Smith v. East Elloe Rural District Council (1956) AC
736 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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