In Brief
The Supreme Court held that bona fide tenants do not automatically lose their tenancy rights when a property is forfeited under SAFEMA and vested in the Central Government. Forfeiture extinguishes only the rights of the person to whom SAFEMA applies and relatives or associates with nexus to illegal acquisition. Bona fide tenants, being neither relatives nor associates of the detenu/convict and uninvolved in illegal activity, retain their tenancy rights. The Court remitted the matter to the competent authority to independently determine whether the appellants were genuinely bona fide tenants without any connection to the property's illegal acquisition.
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