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Forcible dispossession of a person’s property is a human rights violation’
Why in news?
- The Supreme Court has reiterated that forcible dispossession of a person of his private property without due process of law is a violation of human rights.
More in news
- Background:
(1) The verdict came on the acquisition of a few acres in Sikkim by the State’s Agriculture department in 1980 for building the Progeny Orchard Regional Centre.
(2) The land was recorded in two names — 1.29 acres in the name of the Maharaja of Sikkim and 7.07 acres in the name of Man Bahadur Basnett, who was the father of the original appellant in this case.
(3) The judgment found that “in this case, the appellant could not have been forcibly dispossessed of her property without any legal sanction.
- Judgement:
(1) The court stressed that right to property is both a human right and a constitutional right — the latter under Article 300A of the Constitution.
(2) It is accepted in every jurisprudence and by different political thinkers that some amount of property right is an indispensable safeguard against tyranny and economic oppression of the government.
(3) Property itself is the seed bed which must be conserved if other constitutional values are to flourish.
- Article 300A:
(1) It states that no person shall be deprived of his property save by the authority of law.
(2) Therefore, the article protects an individual from interference by the State and dispossess a person of the property unless it is in accordance with the procedure established by law.
(3) Though compensation is not expressly mentioned in the Article, in K.T Plantation Pvt. Ltd. Vs. State of Karnataka, 2011 the SC held that public purpose was a precondition for deprivation of a person of his property under Article 300A of the Constitution and the right to claim compensation was also inbuilt in that Article.
Sources
The Hindu