In Brief
Wakf Board challenged compensation apportionment where lessees received 3/4 of the amount. The lessees held invalid leases of Wakf property exceeding the statutory three-year limit under Section 36-F of the Wakf Act, 1954. The Supreme Court held that such lessees had no occupancy or tenancy rights and were deemed trespassers. Compensation must reflect actual legal rights; here, lessees could claim only 5-15% for displacement and livelihood deprivation, not proportionate land value. The decision in Mangat Ram, wrongly applied, involved statutory purchase rights absent here. To prevent hardship to poor lessees who spent the funds, no recovery was ordered under Article 142.
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