The Gujarat High Court has allowed Reliance Industries Limited’s petition challenging a revenue authority’s decision to reconsider a land re-grant application filed decades after the original grant was cancelled. Justice Devan M. Desai held that the 33-year delay and the absence of supporting evidence regarding cultivation could not be overlooked.
The judgment, delivered on October 14, 2026, concerns approximately 9 acres and 7 gunthas of land in Navagam village, Lalpur taluka, Jamnagar district, which the Gujarat government allotted to Reliance Industries in 2008 for the development of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Background
The dispute originated in 1962, when the Deputy Collector, Jamnagar, granted the land to Deva Sajan Rabari for agricultural cultivation. The grant required him to take possession and cultivate the land within two years. On December 22, 1972, the authorities cancelled the grant after finding that these conditions had not been fulfilled.
The cancellation remained unchallenged during Rabari’s lifetime. In 2005, his legal heirs sought re-grant of the land, but the Jamnagar Collector rejected the request on May 19, 2006, citing the delay.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government allotted the land to Reliance Industries on April 2, 2008, for its SEZ project. Reliance paid the required consideration and obtained possession.
The legal heirs subsequently approached the Special Secretary, Revenue Department (Appeals), who set aside the Collector’s order and directed fresh consideration of the re-grant claim. Reliance challenged this decision before the High Court after its request to join the revenue proceedings had also been rejected.
Justice Devan M. Desai found that the re-grant request had been made after an unexplained delay of 33 years. The Court noted that the original allottee had neither challenged the cancellation nor sought restoration during his lifetime.
The judgment observed:
“The order of cancellation of grant attained finality in absence of any challenge made by the predecessor-in-title of respondent No. 3 during his lifetime.”
The Court also found that the legal heirs had not produced evidence establishing that the original allottee had taken possession of the land and begun cultivation within the prescribed two-year period. A mere assertion of possession and cultivation was insufficient.
The Court further examined the Gujarat government’s resolution dated January 3, 1984, concerning land that had remained under government ownership for an extended period and had acquired greater value or non-agricultural utility. It held that the Special Secretary had failed to properly consider this resolution while directing reconsideration of the claim.
Rejecting the argument that the pending civil litigation undermined Reliance’s allotment, the Court noted that the injunction application in the related suit had been rejected and the suit was subsequently dismissed for non-prosecution in 2010.
The Gujarat High Court allowed Reliance Industries’ petition and set aside the Special Secretary’s order dated October 21, 2008.
It upheld the Jamnagar Collector’s order dated May 19, 2006, which had rejected the application for re-grant on the ground of delay.
