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2014 (5) TMI 1143 - SUPREME COURTGujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976 -Whether Section 40(3)(jj)(a) of the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976 would be operative for the land other than the land covered by Section 20(2) of the Act 1976, though upheld the validity of Section 40(3)(jj) of the Act 1976? - whether after the lapse of the period for reservation as per Section 20(2) of the Act 1976, can the said land be again acquired by resorting to the provisions of Section 40 of the Act 1976? Section 40 of the Act 1976 contains the words “regard being had” and thus it suggests that while the condition specified therein are to be taken into consideration they are only a guide and not fetters upon the exercise of power. It is a settled legal proposition that hardship of an individual cannot be a ground to strike down a statutory provision for the reason that a result flowing from a statutory provision is never an evil. It is the duty of the court to give full effect to the statutory provisions under all circumstances. Merely because a person suffers from hardship cannot be a ground for not giving effective and grammatical meaning to every word of the provisions if the language used therein is unequivocal. The interpretation given by the High Court runs contrary to the intention under the scheme and may frustrate the scheme itself as in the pockets left out in the scheme the basic amenities may not be available. The result would be that a portion of the land would be left without infrastructural facility while the adjacent area belonging to neighbours would be provided infrastructural facility. In view thereof, we are of the considered opinion that the High Court has recorded an erroneous finding that if a designation lapses under Section 20, the land cannot be again reserved in a town planning scheme, and further if the land cannot be acquired under Section 20 for want of capacity to pay any compensation under the Act 1894, it cannot be allowed to be acquired indirectly on lesser payment of compensation as provided under the Act 1976. Thus, the judgment of the High Court to that extent is not sustainable in the eyes of law.
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