Supreme Court Limits Government's Power to Seize Private Property, Overturns 1978 Verdict

Nov 5, 2024, 06:03 AM

The Supreme Court of India, in a landmark ruling delivered on November 5 by a nine-judge Constitution Bench led by the Chief Justice of India, overturned verdicts post-1978 that allowed the government to nationalize and redistribute all private properties under Article 39(b) of the Constitution. The majority held that "not every property owned by an individual can be material resource of the community," and therefore, not all private properties can be taken over by the state. The court stated that the old rulings were motivated by a particular economical, socialist ideology. Justices B.V. Nagarathna partially disagreed with the Chief Justice, while Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia dissented. The verdict limits the government's power to acquire private properties, clarifying that only material resources held by the community for public good can be claimed by the state.