#290: "Private Property" in SC

IMPORTANT | PYQs seen on this topic

Indian socialist credentials took a blow..

..this time from SC led by CJI Chandrachud

What? RIGHT TO PRIVATE PROPERTY

How will this change India? LEARN🤔↓

Legal Chronology

• Original Constitution: Pro private property

- A19(1)(f): Acquire, hold & dispose of property

- A31: No person to be deprived of property

But 44th Amendment 1978 changed the game!😮

How did we reach 44th amendment?👇🏻

The story starts in 1951

PM Nehru, 1st Amendment → 9th Schedule

Need: Zamindars held large chunk of lands

Redistribution & Zamindari abolishment birthed 1AA

Nehru further took away Court powers to judge any law u/ 9th Schedule!🙆

What did this do?🤔👇🏻

It created a paradox:

• No questions asked IXth schedule

• Fundamental Right to property: A 19(1)(f) & 31

Result: Litigations piled up!

Janta Party Govt. deleted the articles & added 300A making property a Legal Right

(See PYQ 2021 on this)

What were these cases?🤔👇🏻

Popular Kesvananda Bharti Case sits at top in property litigations

But the 'attack' on private property is a result of Judicial Intervention

• 1977: Justice Krishna Iyer picks A39(b) claiming Private Property to be part of Community Resource too

39(b): ownership & control of material resources of community are so distributed as best to sub serve the common good

• 1983: Sanjeev Coke Case

This case ended private property in India conceptually

Here, Sanjeev Coke (coal company) was nationalized

SC confirmed words of Justice Iyer

• 2024: Mafatlal Case

Justice Chandrachud buried the preconceptions of past!

A case that started in 1997 saw conclusion 27 years later

Court observations

Justice Iyer view (1977) was inspired by Socialism and so was Sanjeev Coke case

Constitution can't force an economic ideology to declare all private resources as community resources

How will this impact India?

1. No more Sanjeev Coke

aka no arbitrary nationalization of the companies

2. Remember how UP saw farmers' lands taken for projects which never saw surface? No more injustice here!

3. Stricter reinforcement of Olga Tellis Case with no random slum kickouts.

Going forward,

Govt. shall put processes in place to give statutory backing to rights of public property to safeguard citizen interest

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