In Brief
A municipal development plan reserved land for a playground in 2002, but the authorities never acquired it over ten years. The landowner later gave notice to purchase, as permitted by law. The High Court held the reservation had lapsed but gave authorities one additional year to acquire the land. The Supreme Court set aside this one-year extension, holding that statutory timelines for land acquisition are sacrosanct and cannot be extended by courts. Landowners cannot be indefinitely deprived of land use through unimplemented reservations. Once statutory periods expire without acquisition, reservations lapse and ownership rights revive.
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