No rights subsist in acquired land following Declaration u/s 3D of National Highways Act: Allahabad HC

In an order passed recently, the Allahabad High Court has reiterated that once a declaration has been made in terms of Section 3D of the National Highways Act, 1956 (Act), the acquired land vests absolutely with the government, free of all encumbrances. Any rights sought to be transferred thereafter, will stand vitiated by reason of this declaration..A Bench of justices Dilip Gupta and Jayant Banerji clarified this position, while dismissing a petition challenging a notice issued by the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) for the recovery of certain compensation paid to the petitioner..The case can be traced to acquisition proceedings initiated by the National Highways Authority (NHAI) for development of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. A notification for the same was issued under Section 3A of the Act in September 2011. This was followed by a declaration under Section 3D(1) of the Act, which was recorded in the official gazette on August 7, 2012..Regardless, a sale deed was executed thereafter, in favour of the petitioner by the owner of the property in September 2015 i.e. a month after the declaration was made..It was on the basis of this sale deed that the petitioner claimed that he was entitled to receive compensation. On this ground, the petitioner contended that the notice to recover compensation issued against him in November 2017 was liable to be set aside for being bad in law..On the contrary, Advocate Pranjal Mehrotra argued on behalf of the NHAI that the sale deed of September was void ab initio since it was executed after the declaration under Section 3D of the Act was made. It was contended that following such declaration, the land vested absolutely in the Central Government free from all encumbrances..The Court saw merit in this position, after a reading of the Act’s provisions. It was held,.“…on publication of the declaration in the official gazette on 7 August 2012, the land stood vested in the Central Government free from all encumbrances and the erstwhile owner did not have any right to execute the sale deed in favour of the petitioner. The sale deed was executed by the petitioner is void ab initio and does not confer any right upon the petitioner to receive compensation.“.Accordingly, the Court upheld the November notice issued by the concerned ADM to recover compensation from the petitioner and dismissed the writ petition..Read Order: