In Brief
Appellants, descendants of landholders who received grants (Alvaras) from the Portuguese administration in Dadra and Nagar Haveli between 1923-1930, challenged the Collector's 1974 order rescinding those grants for non-cultivation. The lower courts had accepted their pleas of waiver and acquiescence by the administration due to delay. The Supreme Court held that the Organizacao Agraria (OA), 1919—a special law governing land grants in Dadra and Nagar Haveli—is the applicable law, not the general Portuguese Land Code. Article 12 of the OA, requiring cultivation of granted lands, is a mandatory statutory provision rooted in public policy and cannot be waived. Mere administrative delay does not constitute waiver or acquiescence. The High Court was justified in reversing the concurrent findings of the lower courts, which were vitiated by reliance on unsubstantiated oral testimony and misinterpretation of a Lisbon Council judgment. The Collector's rescission order, passed after proper inquiry and opportunity, was legally valid. Appeals dismissed.
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