The Supreme Court today dismissed the pleas filed by allottees of Alwara lands in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which challenged the Collector's order for their forfeiture.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and N Kotiswar Singh delivered the judgment, holding that the Collector's order of 1974 was not actuated by malafides.

To recap, the appellant-allottees were allotted the lands during the Portuguese regime. After the area of Dadra and Nagar Haveli was freed from said regime in 1954, the lands were granted to the appellants/their predecessors. In 1969, the Collector exercised power of the Administrator and forfeited the lands allotted to the appellants on account of their failure to cultivate the same. The power was exercised under the Agrarian Law appli

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