80-Year-Old Man Wins Historic Realty Case After 62 Years, to Receive Land at 1963 Rates
CHANDIGARH: A legal battle that began when India was still finding its feet as a young nation has finally drawn to a close. With the Punjab and Haryana High Court bringing finality to one of the region’s longest-running property disputes, affirming the rights of the original allottee against a private developer, a 5,103 sq ft land bought for less than Rs 14,000 in Faridabad district 62 years ago will now be handed over at a nominal extra cost of 25%, where the current market rate is close to Rs 7 crore.
The lone heir to this property, C K Anand, is over 80 years old. “A party that has deferred performance for decades cannot invoke market escalation as a shield,” the bench of Justice Deepak Gupta said in the recent order. The case traces its origins to 1963, when M/s RC Sood & Company Ltd launched Eros Gardens residential colony near Suraj Kund in Faridabad and accepted advance payments from buyer Nanki Devi, Anand’s mother.
It agreed to sell two plots — No 26-A, measuring 350 sq yards, and No B-57, measuring 217 sq yards, at Rs 24 and Rs 25 per square yard — to the allottee. Nanka Devi paid nearly half of the sale consideration. But what followed was a saga of statutory roadblocks, administrative delays, and relentless litigation stretching across generations. Shortly after the bookings, the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Act, 1963, came into force, followed by the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975.
The developer repeatedly cited these laws as reasons for not handing over possession, assuring buyers that once approvals were secured, the plots would be transferred. By the mid-1980s, apprehensive that the plots might be sold to third parties, the allottees approached court — not for possession but merely to prevent alienation. Even then, the High Court held that allotments subsisted and could not be cancelled unilaterally by the company.
Still, possession remained elusive. The present round of litigation began in 2002. Lower courts ruled in their favour but the developer moved the High Court, arguing limitation, alleged cancellation in 1964, and the inequity of enforcing a six-decade-old bargain in today’s real estate market. Justice Gupta, in a 22-page judgment that was released Saturday, rejected each of these arguments.
This historic ruling not only brings closure to a long-standing legal battle but also sets a precedent for similar cases where developers delay possession for extended periods. The judgment emphasizes the importance of upholding contractual obligations and the rights of original allottees, even in the face of changing market conditions and legal frameworks.
