In Brief
In this 2017 case, the Supreme Court set aside a High Court Division Bench order that had granted a private landowner (respondent No. 4) permission to file a fresh civil suit challenging the acquisition of their 25-acre property by Bangalore Development Authority in 1977–1979. After three decades and multiple failed lawsuits and writ petitions, the owner sought to relitigate. The Court held that acquisition proceedings had attained finality; hundreds of allottees had built homes on the acquired land; and the civil court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate acquisition validity—only the High Court can do so under Article 226. Allowing repeated litigation would unsettle settled rights and constituted abuse of process.
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