In an interesting case arising out of a dispute between Church of North India and the Union government on the control of a building belonging to the East India Company, which was instrumental in establishing British rule in India, the Supreme Court has held that the Centre has all the powers to take the possession of any such property under the laws enacted by it after independence.
The disputed property is located in Nasirabad in Rajasthan in which the Church is running a “mission hospital” and the government sought eviction of it on the ground that the entire area had been brought under the control of the cantonment board thus all the properties within the premises had to be governed by the Centre under the Cantonment Act.
“The government has the power to make rules concerning the management of these properties,” a bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and H.L. Gokhale said, acknowledging the Centre’s claim that the Church had been illegally occupying the building, which belongs to government as it was vested in it under the provisions of the Public Premises Act (PPA).
Defining the power of the government to take control of any property belonging to the entities like government company, universities, major ports and cantonment boards existing since British era, the top court said under the provisions of PPA, the union could take them under its possession.
It may be noted that East India Company was nationalised by British government after 1857 uprising and it had consequently come under the control of Government of India, hence it was defined as Government Company.
The Supreme Court said Section 2(e) of the PPA which empowers the Centre to take control of all such properties has two parts — sub-section (1) covers any premises belonging to the government or taken on lease by it and sub-section (2) covers the government companies, universities, ports and cantonments etc.
The verdict came on an appeal of the Cantonment Board against the Rajasthan high court order, which had overruled the 1991 verdict of the district judge, Ajmer, asking the Church to vacate the premises.
The Cantonment Board also had submitted that the Church was not “fully” utilising the East India Company era building fully for the requirement of the mission hospital as it had taken other premises in the town for its health institution.
Church’s initial civil suit was dismissed in 1987 by a civil court following which the estate officer of the Centre had issued notice to the Church to vacate the premises but it had filed an appeal before the district judge, Ajmer, who also upheld the trial court eviction decree.
However, the Rajasthan HC allowed the appeal of the Church on the ground that it has a right to retain the possession under the Transfer of Property Act (TPA) and the board’s initial notice for eviction within seven days was contrary to the rules as it should have been of 15 days under the TPA.
The most interesting part of the dispute was that the hospital building was leased out to the Church at a monthly rent of `75 and it continued to be the same till the matter went to the court and now the government has got the top court’s final verdict to get the possession.