Not all pvt. property can be taken over by govt: SC

The 7-2 verdict overruled several verdicts after 1978 that had adopted the socialist theme and ruled that the State could take over all private properties for the common good

- AGENCIES

A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, by a majority judgment, ruled that not all private properties are attributable as 'material resources of the community' under Article 39(b) of the Constitution and can't be taken over by the State to subserve the "common good".

The majority verdict authored by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that interpretation that every privately-owned property could be used by the state as material resource to "subserve the common good" postulated a "rigid economic theory which advocates greater state control of private resources".

Chief Justice Chandrachud, also speaking for Justices Hrishikesh Roy, J.B. Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Rajesh Bindal, Satish Chandra Sharma and Augustine George Masih, overruled several verdicts post 1978 that had adopted the socialist theme and ruled that the State could take over all private properties for the common good.