Karnataka HC Restores Buyers’ Names In Land Records, Citing 17-Year Gap Between 1993 Sale And Resumption Proceedings

The land was granted in 1977–78 and alienated by sale deed in 1993.

The grantee’s legal heirs initiated resumption proceedings in 2009–10.

The Assistant Commissioner allowed the claim on 13 March 2014, and the Deputy Commissioner affirmed that order on 27 May 2019.

The purchasers challenged both orders under Articles 226 and 227, contending, among other things, that the authorities had failed to consider the substantial delay in initiating resumption proceedings.

The Court applied the doctrine of laches, treating delay as a material consideration in proceedings to resume granted land and stating that restoration action brought after significant delay may be barred by laches.

It also held that disputed questions of fact concerning the validity of a sale deed and the non-joinder of the grantee’s daughters could not be adjudicated in writ proceedings; the alleged delay in the appeal could not be raised against a writ petition instituted by the purchaser.

The land had been alienated in 1993, but resumption proceedings began only in 2009–10, a delay of nearly 17 years.

Although the Assistant Commissioner ordered resumption and the Deputy Commissioner confirmed it, neither authority addressed whether that delay rendered the proceedings unreasonable or barred by laches.

Because delay was a crucial consideration in deciding whether to resume the land, the failure to consider it made the orders unsustainable.

The Court declined to determine the respondents’ factual objections concerning the sale deed and the daughters’ non-joinder in this writ proceeding.

It directed the concerned authority to mutate or restore the petitioners’ names in the revenue records relating to the subject land.