Specific Relief Act

The Central government in its bid to ensure better ‘ease of doing business in India’ is keen to make changes to a 50-year-old law which provides for heavy compensation and penalties on land acquirers and industry in cases of violation of law. A high-powered committee studied the Specific Relief Act 1963 and has submitted its recommendations, calling for sweeping changes. It argued for lessening the impact of legal provisions for disputes regarding construction of public utility projects.

The 'Specific Relief Act 1963' is an Act of the Parliament of India large number of remedial aspects of law. It came in the replacement of the earlier Act of 1877. Protection of life and property cannot be assured by a simple declaration of rights and duties. The enumeration of rights and duties must be supplemented by legal devices which help the individual to enforce his rights. Social redress must be provided to every person who is injured in the social process. Basically, the mission of the Specific Act is to assure that whenever there is a wrong there must be a remedy.

Though the Specific Relief Act is concerned only with the enforcement of civil rights and not penal laws, even civil law has to take care of certain rights, the violation of which is capable of creating serious violent clashes, and these are rights to possession of property. The very first chapter provides relief to those who have been dispossessed of their property. No suit for dispossession against the government is maintainable under Specific Relief Act.

This is the final matter which is taken care of by the Specific Relief Act. Sometimes it may happen, that a person who is entitled to some status or character or has a right in some property but is being denied the enjoyment of his right by other parties. Under Chapter VI of the Specific Relief Act, he is allowed to proceed against any person who is denying or is interested in denying him his right.

Centre’s move comes against the backdrop of the courts actively allowing petitions by environmentalists and NGOs challenging various infrastructure ventures, contending that they are causing irreparable damage to ecology. “The role of courts in this exercise is to interfere to the minimum extent so that public works projects will not be impeded or stalled," the panel said.