In a significant order, the Supreme Court has ruled, inter alia, that governments cannot deem it fit to take over any private or community property for common good. The case related to Article 31 C of the Constitution that protects Article 39B stating, “the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as to best subserve the common good.” The nine-bench Constitution bench was headed by CJI Chandrachud, which issued a judgement with an 8-1 majority. It also states, among other things, that the context, the nature of the resource the government seeks to take over, the characteristics and impact of the resource on the wellbeing of the community etc should be taken into consideration while arriving at a decision on a take-over. In sum, the inference is that governments can only selectively takeover property from private individuals or others.
The rights of individuals must be respected at all cost, but not at the cost of national well-being. The interest of the nation is the collective interest of the community. Hence, a balancing of interests is well-advised. The apex court in its wisdom has rightly not given the full authority for governments to indulge. Yet, notably, several infrastructural projects, be they of highways or ports or of industrial units, failed to take off for years until the central government tightened its legal mechanisms and simultaneously increased the rate of compensations for property acquirement to facilitate the smooth progress of such projects. Now, it is easy for the highways ministry to lay roads across the country for the reason that justice is done to those who lose their property thus. Governments cannot expect individuals to suffer. It is well-endowed to offer them fair compensation. Yet, in several cases of takeover for industrial purposes etc, governments cite excuses or rules and are reluctant to help those who lost their homes and hearths. They languish in make-shift tents for decades before any meaningful help comes to them to reconstruct their lives. Those who stand in the middle, including politicians and officials, seek to take a cut, further exacerbating the plight of such people. Rehabilitation is often a mirage. The incompetence of those who run the nation, or states, made the plight of such people more pathetic.
Courts are duty bound to ensure the rights of the people in a democracy, At the same time, courts also must be mindful of the ground realities. Organised attempts to stonewall projects, at the behest of vested interests including politicians in the opposition parties, kill several projects. They have their ulterior motives, which are mostly linked to their own interests. In a scenario where the media, especially the electronic media, play up such “protests” and sensationalize matters, public interest suffers at the altar of vested interests.
