Facts :-

Mr. Das’s land was taken into possession by the state sometime in 1963. Later, the required body found out that the said land was not required by the required body for the project. Later, the Collector made the decision to release the land under government order.

From time to time several notices were served to the said required body for fixing various dates for delivering the possession of the said land that still had not been returned to Mr. Das & ors. Even though they were present at the site on all occasions pursuant to the notice served upon them.

As per the writ petition requesting the DM and the Collector to take appropriate steps to handover the peaceful possession of the land to Mr. Das and Ors. at the earliest. In spite of such directions the appropriate steps for the peaceful possession were not yet implemented hence, Mr. Das and ors. had to approach the court with the said writ petition.

Since the government had already passed the order reassuring the return of the said vacant piece of land, the court did not find any valid justification for not returning the land to our client for a very long time and depriving them from enjoying their land.

Decision by the Court :-

The court had disposed off the Writ Petition by directing the DM and the Collector to deliver the peaceful possession of the aforesaid vacant land to our client positively within a period of four weeks, since Mr Das and Ors. They were deprived of enjoying their own property for a very long time; hence, they were entitled to compensation for the period during which they were deprived of their said land. Moreover, the court also directed the aforesaid required body to pay rent compensation as per the current market rate to our client since the time the possession of the property was taken from our client. The entire payment should be made within eight weeks from the day of the court’s order. The rent compensation amount will carry an interest of ten percent per annum from the date where our client was owed the payment by the regulating body upto the actual date of payment thereof.