C.A. No. 1012/2002

PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION VS STATE OF MAHARASHTRA .

The Supreme Court by a 7-2 majority held that not all private property constitutes ‘material resources of the community’ in Articles 39(b) and (c) to be acquired and redistributed by the State. It overruled the decision of Sanjeev Coke which held that private resources also come under the material resources of the community. The judgment for the majority was written by Chief Justice Candrachud. Justice Nagarathna authored a separate partly dissenting opinion holding that all privately owned resources except for “personal effects” can constitute “material resources of the community” and private property can be “transformed” into community resources through  processes such as nationalisation or acquisition. Justice Dhulia also delivered a dissenting opinion holding that income and wealth inequality are enormous and the broad interpretation of “material resources of the community” adopted in Ranganatha Reddy and Sanjiv Coke is correct. All Nine Judges held that Article 31-C continues to prevent statutes from being struck down for violating Articles 14 and 19 if they give effect to Articles 39(b) and (c), as interpreted in this judgement. The constitutionality of the MHADA will now be decided by a regular bench based on the principles laid down in this case.