Thu Mar 20 17:11:33 UTC 2025: ## Supreme Court Rules Against Private Land Transfers After Eminent Domain Acquisition
**NEW DELHI, March 20, 2025** – The Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark ruling today, declaring that private agreements transferring land acquired by the government for public use back to its original owner constitute fraud. The decision, authored by Justice Sanjay Kumar and delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, stemmed from a case involving the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB).
The DAMB, after acquiring 33 acres of land in Narela, Delhi, under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 to establish a grain market, subsequently agreed to return half the land to the original owner in a private deal. The court deemed this action a circumvention of the state’s power of eminent domain.
Justice Kumar’s judgment stated that such agreements effectively negate the state’s acquisition, calling the arrangement “a dubious enterprise” that allows for “fraud on the exercise of such sovereign power by the state.” The court emphasized that once land is acquired for public use, its subsequent transfer back to the original owner via private means undermines the legal process. The court’s decision firmly establishes that the beneficiary of a compulsory acquisition cannot reverse the state’s use of eminent domain through private agreements.
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