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State duty bound to protect, not transgress civil rights of citizens: Delhi HC
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....tate duty bound to protect, not transgress civil rights of citizens: Delhi HC<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 6-5-2025<BR>PTI<BR>New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has outlined the state's responsibility to protect civil rights of citizens, including property, being a constitutional authority and repository of public trust. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said the right to property, though no ....
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....longer a fundamental right, continued to occupy a sacrosanct position within the democratic framework as a constitutional and legal right under Article 300A (persons not to be deprived of property except by authority of law) of the Constitution. "The state, being a constitutional authority and repository of public trust, is duty-bound to protect, rather than transgress, the civil rights of its c....
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....itizens, including the right to property. The powers of the state are not plenary or absolute but are circumscribed by constitutional and statutory limitations," the court said on May 2. The verdict went on, "In a constitutional democracy governed by the principles of justice, equity, and good conscience, the preservation of legal rights such as that of proprietary (rights) must remain an unyiel....
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....ding commitment of the state." Any executive or legislative action which seeks to divest a citizen of property without due process, in the absence of an enabling law, would fall foul of Article 300A and render such action void ab initio (void from the beginning), it added. The observations came in a suit over the wrongful forfeiture of the plaintiffs' flat in Ansal Bhawan at Kasturba Gandhi Ma....
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....rg in the capital under Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976 (SAFEMA), based on a revoked detention order from the Emergency era. The plaintiffs claimed to be the rightful owners of the property and alleged “systematic violation” of their proprietary rights, which commenced during the period of proclamation of Emergency in 1977. The defendant Direc....
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....torate of Estates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, however, claimed the property was leased out to them and later forfeited to the Central Government by a 1998 order. Upon forfeiture, the suit property vested absolutely in the Central government free from all encumbrances, it added. The authorities claimed the forfeiture remained in operation until March 28, 2016, when the proc....
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....eedings under SAFEMA stood closed. The suit was filed by the plaintiffs seeking damages of mesne profits, loss of market rent and the damages arising out of outstanding property tax, along interest. The high court held the occupation of property from 1999 to 2020 unlawful and allowed the plaintiffs' claim for grant of mesne profits and based on then prevailing market rates, held they are entit....
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....led to over Rs 1.76 crore with interest . The court found it imperative to have a "strict" scrutiny of state actions, particularly those involving the deprivation or restriction of immovable assets. "The state must not only comply with the letter of the law but also act in a manner that is fair, just, and equitable. Executive overreach beyond the four corners of the law must be met with consti....
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....tutional censure, for when the protector of rights becomes the violator, the very fabric of the rule of law is imperiled," the order said. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK<BR> News - Press release - PIB....