The Karnataka High Court has held that judicial proceedings in respect to claim of title on a property initiated by father and settled by court are binding on son as well and that principle of res judicata restricts him to agigate against the same cause.
The Division Bench comprising of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J M Khazi observed the above in an appeal filed by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) wherein it challanged order quashing notifications issued for acquiring of agricultural land, allowing the writ by son of a farmer whose claim on the same land was previously rejected.
Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant submitted that the original petitioner was guilty of suppression of facts and the writ petition filed by the original petitioner suffered from delay and laches.
It was further submitted that the writ petition filed by the original petitioner was barred by res judicata as in the writ petition filed by the father of original petitioner, the validity of impugned notifications was upheld. It was also contended that the original petitioner cannot claim any benefit on the principle of negative equality and no legal right accrues to the original petitioner even if in some cases in which adverse orders have been passed against the appellants, it may not have preferred an appeal. However, it was fairly submitted that the land owners are entitled to just and fair compensation.
Reliance was placed on INDORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY vs. MANOHARLAL AND ORS. ETC., 2019 Latest Caselaw 1029 SC
The Court at the outset noted that the writ petition was filed after an inordinate delay of 34 years from the date of issuing the final notification, for which no explanation has been offered. To this, the Court stated that it is trite law that discretionary jurisdiction to deal with a prayer for quashing the land acquisition proceeding, in a writ petition which suffers from inordinate delay and laches have to be exercised with great circumspection. Referrence was made to Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay Vs. The Industrial Development & Investment Co. Pvt. Ltd. & Ors, 1996 Latest Caselaw 720 SC, Jasveer Singh and ANR. Vs. State of U.P. and Ors. [May 01, 2017], 2017 Latest Caselaw 387 SC
Noting that in the instant case, no explanation has been offered by the original petitioner for filing a writ petition after an inordinate delay of 34 years, the Court stated that Single Judge without assigning any cogent reason held that the delay is immaterial as scheme in question has already lapsed.
The Court opined that on this ground the impugned order cannot be sustained.
It fruther went on to note that it is trite law that principles of constructive res judicata and res judicata apply to writ proceeding and in the present case, the original petitioner who claims title in respect of property in question through his father is bound by the decision of previous writ petition and cannot be permitted to agitate the validity of the impugned notifications
Referrence was made to Daryao & Ors Vs. The State of U. P. & Ors, 1961 Latest Caselaw 118 SC, Virudhunagar Steel Rolling Mills Limited Vs. The Government of Madras, 1968 Latest Caselaw 6 SC, State of Karnataka & Anr Vs. All India Manufacturers Organization & Ors, 2006 Latest Caselaw 217 SC
"the original petitioner who claims title in respect of property in question through his father is bound by the decision of previous writ petition and cannot be permitted to agitate the validity of the impugned notifications dated 21.03.1977 and 14.05.1980 again on the principle of res judicata"
Noting that it is well settled in law that even if some similarly situate persons have been granted benefit inadvertently or by mistake, the same does not confer any legal right on the original petitioner to claim similar relief, the Court ruled that therefore, even if some land owners may have been granted the benefit, inadvertently by the authority, the same would not confer any legal right on the original petitioner to claim the similar benefit.
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