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B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Land Law 2020 Nov Question Paper with Solutions

KSLU Solved Question Papers

Land Law

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10

2020 Nov Examination

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Mumbai

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First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.

munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.

The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.

The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2020 Nov examination.

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Contents

The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2020 Nov examination, in the order it was set.

MarksPage

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MarksPage

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The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2020 Nov examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.

Duration 3 hours  ·  Total marks 100  ·  15 questions answered

How to use this volume

Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.

Read the original question paper

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Q1Explain the history of land acquisition laws in India.[16]

Answer

For full marks, cover: the idea behind acquisition law (eminent domain); five stages of its history: the early regulations (1824 to 1863), the Act of 1870, the Act of 1894 and its working, the constitutional stage (Article 31, the amendments and Article 300A) with the 1984 amendment, and the 2013 Act with the ordinances and State amendments, including Karnataka's; the lessons the courts drew at each stage; cases; conclusion.

The idea behind the law

Every State claims the power to take private land for public use. This is the power of eminent domain. In Jilubhai Nanbhai Khachar v. State of Gujarat, decided on 20 July 1994, the Supreme Court called it "a right inherent in every sovereign State". The history of land acquisition law in India is the story of how that power was given a procedure, and then gradually limited and humanised.

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Stage 1: the early regulations, 1824 to 1863

As the Supreme Court recounted in Radhy Shyam v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2011) 5 SCC 553, the first Indian law was Bengal Regulation I of 1824. It allowed land to be taken for roads, canals and other public works. Act I of 1850, Act VI of 1857 and Act XXII of 1863 followed. Bombay passed Acts in 1839 and 1850, and Madras in 1852 and 1854. Under these laws the price was fixed by arbitrators. They were piecemeal and differed from province to province.

Stage 2: the Act of 1870

The Land Acquisition Act, 1870 aimed at proper valuation by a uniform method. If the owner refused the Collector's offer, the dispute went to a civil court assisted by assessors. An appeal lay to the High Court where the judge and an assessor differed. The Supreme Court notes that this proved slow, with much time spent in litigation.

Stage 3: the Act of 1894

The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 replaced the 1870 Act and lasted for about 120 years. It followed the pattern of the English Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845. Its main features were:

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  1. a preliminary notification under section 4, followed by survey;
  2. a declaration under section 6 that the land was needed for a public purpose;
  3. notice to persons interested and an award by the Collector under section 11;
  4. compensation under section 23, based on market value at the date of the section 4 notification, with a solatium;
  5. a reference to the civil court under section 18 for those dissatisfied with the award;
  6. an urgency power in section 17 to take possession before the award; and
  7. a separate procedure in Part VII for acquisition for companies.

At first, owners could challenge only the amount. In 1923, section 5-A was inserted, allowing objections to the acquisition itself after the section 4 notification. The Supreme Court in Radhy Shyam later described section 5-A as the statutory form of the right to be heard.

Stage 4: the Constitution, the amendments and the 1984 changes

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  1. Article 31 (1950). Property was a fundamental right. Acquisition needed a public purpose and a law providing compensation.
  2. Bela Banerjee (1954). In State of West Bengal v. Bela Banerjee, AIR 1954 SC 170, the Court held that compensation means a just equivalent of what the owner loses.
  3. The amendments. The First Amendment (1951) protected agrarian reform through Article 31A and the Ninth Schedule. The Fourth (1955) made adequacy of compensation non-justiciable. The Seventeenth (1964) required market value for land under personal cultivation within the ceiling. The Twenty-fifth (1971) replaced "compensation" with "amount".
  4. The Forty-fourth Amendment (1978). The fundamental right to property was removed and Article 300A inserted: no person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law.
  5. The 1984 amendment. Act 68 of 1984 amended the 1894 Act. Among other things, it added section 11-A, requiring the award within two years of the declaration, failing which the acquisition lapsed.

Stage 5: the reaction and the 2013 Act

By the 2000s, the 1894 Act faced three main criticisms, each reflected in decided cases:

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  1. Overuse of urgency. In Radhy Shyam, land at Greater Noida was acquired for "planned industrial development" by invoking urgency to deny a hearing. The Supreme Court quashed it.
  2. Diversion of acquired land. In Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd. v. G. Jayarama Reddy, (2011) 10 SCC 608, land near Bangalore acquired for a public tourism project was transferred to private companies. The Court called this "a fraud on the power of eminent domain".
  3. Displacement without rehabilitation. Large projects displaced people who received no rehabilitation as of right. In Singur, decided as Kedar Nath Yadav v. State of West Bengal on 31 August 2016, an acquisition for a car factory was quashed and the land returned.

Parliament responded with the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, in force from 1 January 2014. Its preamble calls for "a humane, participative, informed and transparent process". It introduced:

  1. a social impact assessment before notification, appraised by an Expert Group;
  2. consent of eighty or seventy per cent of affected families for private and public private partnership projects;
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  1. limits on taking irrigated multi-cropped land;
  2. market value multiplied in rural areas, with a hundred per cent solatium;
  3. rehabilitation and resettlement as a right of every affected family;
  4. a special Authority in place of the civil court for references;
  5. payment before possession, return of unused land after five years, and sharing of resale gains.

Section 24 dealt with pending acquisitions under the 1894 Act.

After 2013: ordinances, State amendments and the courts

  1. Ordinances. The Union issued ordinances in 2014 and 2015 to dilute consent and the social impact study for certain projects. They were not enacted and lapsed.
  2. State amendments. Several States amended the Act for themselves. Karnataka's Statement of Objects names Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka Act 16 of 2019 lets the State exempt notified projects from the study and food security chapters. It also allows awards and purchases by agreement and lump sums in place of rehabilitation.
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  1. Courts on the transition. In Indore Development Authority v. Manoharlal, (2020) 8 SCC 129, a Constitution Bench held that an old acquisition lapses under section 24(2) only if neither possession was taken nor compensation paid.
  2. Courts on other Acts. In Union of India v. Tarsem Singh, (2019) 9 SCC 304, denying solatium and interest for highway acquisitions was held to violate Article 14. The 2013 Act's Schedules now apply to such acquisitions.

Lessons from the history

  1. Procedure protects owners. Each reform added a stage at which owners could be heard. Examples are the reference court of 1870, the hearing of objections in 1923 and the social impact study of 2013.
  2. Time limits matter. Section 11-A in 1984, and the twelve-month limits of the 2013 Act, were responses to acquisitions left pending for years.
  3. Money alone is not enough. The 2013 Act recognised that labourers, tenants and forest dwellers lose their living even when they own no land.
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  1. Purpose must be kept. Cases like Royal Orchid led to the bar on changing the purpose or ownership of acquired land.
  2. Speed and fairness pull apart. The ordinances and State amendments show that the balance between quick acquisition and fair process is still contested.

The pattern of the history

The law moved from arbitration (1824) to court reference (1870 and 1894), and from price only to a right to object (1923). Property moved from a fundamental right to a constitutional right under Article 300A (1978). It then moved from compensation only to consent, social impact and rehabilitation (2013). Since 2019, Karnataka has moved partly back towards speed for notified projects.

Conclusion. Land acquisition law in India began with Bengal Regulation I of 1824 and arbitrators. It passed through the court-reference Acts of 1870 and 1894, with objections added in 1923 and time limits in 1984. The Constitution's property guarantee gave way to Article 300A in 1978. The courts exposed misuse of urgency, diversion of land and neglect of the displaced. The 2013 Act answered with consent, social impact assessment, fair compensation and rehabilitation, which Karnataka has since modified for notified projects.

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