In Brief
Surgeon Vice Admiral GP Panda was allotted government land in 1981 as an eligible ex-Defence officer. The State later initiated resumption proceedings against his allotment and subsequently granted overlapping land to IDCO. The High Court held the resumption illegal and the land properly identified. The Supreme Court dismissed appeals by the State and IDCO, finding that: the settlement imposed no conditions whose breach would justify resumption after 26 years; the High Court based its decision on admitted official documents, not on disputed facts; and the State's method of dispossession was unconstitutional and arbitrary. The Court upheld the principle that the power of re-entry must follow law and cannot be exercised without clear legal justification.
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