Under Article 226 the High Court cannot alter or amend the lease deed: Supreme Court
On April 19, 2023, the Supreme Court of India while hearing the Gwalior Development Authority vs Bhanu Pratap Singh case stated that the High Court cannot alter or amend the lease deed compulsorily registered under Section 17 of the Registration Act 1908 in the exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the India Constitution. The case was presented before the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Ajay Rastogi. In this case, the Respondents were directed to execute the lease deed in favor of the petitioner of the remaining area of the land i.e. 9625.50 sq. mtr. in accordance with the acceptance of his offer of a total plot area of 27887.50 sq. mtr. It was determined that the petitioner should be liable to make payment of interest from 17.8.2001 up to 29.3.2006 when the lease deed was executed in favor of the petitioner excluding the period of 27.5.2004 to 29.3.2005. The Respondents were at liberty to calculate the amount of interest accordingly after verification of the amount which was paid by the petitioner.
The appellants issued an advertisement and invited bids for the grant of leases of different plots under the transport city scheme. As a matter of fact, no additional consideration was required to be paid by the respondent except the interest for the interregnum period of which reference was made under the impugned judgment. This became the subject matter of challenge at the instance of the Authority in the instant appeal. The High Court under the impugned judgment passed an order, but the judgments on which reliance was placed had no semblance to the facts of the instant case and natural justice plays no role in the given facts and circumstances. In the Supreme Court's view, the judgment passed by the High Court in issuing a mandamus to execute the lease deed in favor of the respondent for the remaining area of 9625.50 sq. meters was completely beyond the jurisdiction and such directions were set aside.
While setting aside the judgment of the High Court, the bench said “The fact is that the parties sitting across the table, got the lease deed executed for 18262.89 sq. meters without demur on 29th March 2006 and the transaction stood concluded after execution of the lease deed, which was initiated pursuant to a tender floated by the appellant on 13th March 1997 and since the lease deed was to be compulsorily registered under Section 17 of the registration Act, 1908, it was nowhere open to be altered or amended even by the High Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution.” The bench also stated that the Authority may consider the request on a priority basis and if the respondent fails or does not show inclination or interest on the present prevalent circle rate of the subject land in question, “the appellants are at liberty to put the subject land for disposal as per their land disposal rules.” The appeal was allowed by the Supreme Court.
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