- The Supreme Court judgment upheld a Calcutta High Court order rejecting an appeal filed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation defending its acquisition of private land.
- It is generally assumed that for a valid acquisition, all that is necessary is to possess the power of eminent domain [power of the sovereign to acquire property of an individual for public use without consent] to acquire, followed by the grant of reasonable and fair compensation.
- Compulsory acquisition will still be unconstitutional if proper procedure is not established and followed before depriving a person of his/her right to property.
- Though the 44th Constitutional Amendment omitted the right to property as a fundamental right, Article 300A, which was simultaneously inserted into the Constitution, provided that “no person shall be deprived of his property, save by authority of law”.
- The right to property has even been interpreted to be a human right.
Dig Deeper: Read important provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act – 2013.
