The Supreme Court has restarted the case related to the land dispute worth Rs 400 crore between Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) and the family of former royal family member and state Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari. The court has canceled the 14-year-old order of the Rajasthan High Court, in which the 2011 trial court's decision in favor of the royal property was accepted as correct "without any investigation".
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Vishwanathan said that there was no justification for the High Court not to consider the JDA's appeal on technical grounds. In their judgment, the judges directed the HC bench to decide the JDA's first appeal on merits within four weeks and submit a compliance report.
The dispute pertains to land that used to be 'Hathroi Village' in official records, a village which later became part of the urban sprawl of Central Jaipur, comprising prime real estate, schools, hospitals and other civic infrastructure. Jaipur Development Authority has estimated the value of this piece of land, recorded as “Siwai Chak” (government land not cultivable) in its revenue records, at Rs 400 crore.
The petition filed in the court said the civil administration had taken possession of the land in the 1990s, and challenged the former royal family's claim that it was registered as private property under the 1949 agreement that governed Jaipur's merger with the Indian Union.
The authority says the land was never listed in the agreement's schedule as private property of the former royal family, while large portions of the land were legally acquired by paying compensation between 1993 and 1995.
But in the year 2005, a civil suit was filed on behalf of the royal family for declaration of ownership. Nearly six years later, on November 24, 2011, the trial court ruled in his favor, and he was declared the owner. Also, the court rejected the revenue entries in favor of the state and restrained the authority from interfering in the possession.
The authority filed its first appeal against this the next year in 2012. But it was rejected in November 2023, although it was reinstated a year later. On September 15 last year, the Rajasthan High Court refused to intervene in this land dispute, and upheld the trial court's decision without any appellate inquiry.
The Jaipur Development Authority moved the Supreme Court on December 10 over the decision, arguing that the government land was lost on technical grounds despite issues of public title, completion of acquisition, settlement of revenue records and constitutional prohibition under Article 363. The matter has now reached the Supreme Court and this matter is now going to be reopened.
