'Merely Running School Is Not Charitable Purpose': Bombay High Court Rejects Education Trust's Property-Tax Exemption Bid

The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Jai Hind Sindhu Education Trust seeking exemption from property tax, holding that an educational institution must establish for every financial year that its buildings and lands are solely occupied and used for a public charitable purpose. The Court held that merely running an educational institution, or being a linguistic...

'Undue Fetter' On Right Of Appeal: Kerala High Court Sets Aside Order Requiring 50% Maintenance Deposit For Delay Condonation

The Kerala High Court recently held that courts cannot impose deposit of a percentage of the award amount as condition while considering an application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act to condone delay in preferring an appeal. [2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 558]Justice Jobin Sebastian opined that such a condition may be justified when the appellate court is considering an application for stay of execution of the award but not while considering an application for condonation of delay.“The right of...

Existing Hotels, Guest Houses Nearby Cannot Justify Commercial Land Use In Restricted Area: Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court observed that the mere existence of hotels, guest houses and homestays in the vicinity of a plot could not justify permitting a Change of Land Use (CLU) in a designated Restricted Area. The Court held that the discretionary power under sub-regulation (vi) of General Regulation 18.1.2 had to be exercised on the basis of public interest or other material and justifiable considerations. In the absence of such reasons, allowing commercial use merely by relying on...

Patna High Court Dismisses PIL Against Commercial Use Of Bodh Gaya Monasteries

The Patna HC has held that a Public Interest Litigation cannot be used to pursue a dispute which, in substance, concerns competing interests of particular establishments or associations, merely by couching the relief in terms of enforcement of statutory provisions.A Division Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Rajesh Kumar Verma heard the writ applications filed in the form of Public Interest Litigations by the Bodhgaya Hotel Association. The petitioner sought directions restraining...

No Record Of Property Being Enemy Or Evacuee Property, State Can't Stop Construction On Mere Allegations: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that the State cannot stop construction on a land by merely alleging it to be evacuee property, without placing on record any document showing that the property was registered as evacuee property or that proceedings for its registration are pending.The bench of Justice Prakash Padia and Justice Vivek Saran held,“Since the respondents State has not brought...

Mere Entry Of Produce From Outside State For Processing Without Sale In Market Area Cannot Attract Development Cess: Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court has held that mere bringing of agricultural produce from outside the State into a market area for manufacture or further processing, without any sale or purchase within the market area, cannot attract development cess. The Court held that the first proviso to Section 27(c)(v) of the Uttarakhand Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2011...

Extra Excavation Alone Does Not Justify Royalty On Soil Unless Its Use As Minor Mineral Is Shown: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court had held that extra excavation of soil/earth during construction, by itself, does not make the excavated material a minor mineral so as to attract royalty. The Court observed that royalty cannot be imposed unless it is positively demonstrated, or clear inferences can be drawn, that the excavated material was used for purposes specified in the relevant notification....

District Magistrate Alone Can Convene No-Confidence Meeting Against Cooperative Society Chairman: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that the power to convene a meeting for consideration of a no-confidence motion against the Chairman of a cooperative society vests exclusively in the District Magistrate as the specified authority under Rule 465 of the U.P. Co-operative Societies Rules, 1968, and cannot be delegated or sub-delegated. It held that where any other officer fixes the time, date...

Sale Deed Cancellation Alone Doesn't Permit Dispossession Without Eviction Order: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that a decree which only cancels a sale deed, and carries no direction for eviction or delivery of possession, does not authorise the decree-holder to remove the occupant from the property. It held that a person in long and settled possession makes out a prima facie case for temporary injunction even where the sale deed on which his claim of title rests...

Subsequent Abeyance Of Debarment Can't Retrospectively Make Bidder Eligible On Bid Due Date: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that where a tender document declares an entity ineligible to bid if a governmental debarment subsists on the bid due date, an order later keeping that debarment in abeyance operates only from the date it is passed and does not relate back to make the bidder eligible on the due date.Clause 2.1.18 of the Request for Proposal provided that an entity barred by...

Unregistered Relinquishment Deed Cannot Transfer Title: Chhattisgarh High Court Dismisses Challenge To Revenue Board Order

The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that a relinquishment deed transferring title to immovable property must be registered and that an unregistered relinquishment deed cannot transfer title even if it was executed in the presence of witnesses. The Court accordingly dismissed a petition challenging the Board of Revenue's order, which had affirmed the setting aside of a mutation based on...

Legal Heirs Of 'Korfa' Cultivator Cannot Claim Compensation Decades After Cultivation Ceased: Tripura High Court

The Tripura High Court has held that legal heirs of a 'Korfa' or under-raiyat cannot claim a share in land acquisition compensation merely on the basis of old revenue records when there is no evidence that they continued cultivation or possessed a subsisting tenancy right on the date of acquisition.Justice Dr. T. Amarnath Goud remarked that: “The petitioner/legal heirs cannot enter into...