In Brief
Delhi Development Authority challenged a High Court order that declared lapsed certain land acquisition proceedings initiated in 1980 for planned development in Village Chattarpur. The land owners obtained interim orders of stay of dispossession in writ petitions. The High Court held the proceedings lapsed under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that a party cannot benefit from interim orders it obtained to claim lapsing of proceedings. Since interim orders prevented the acquiring authority from taking possession, the period during which they operated must be excluded from the five-year computation, and no stay-free period of five years existed before the 2013 Act came into force.
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