Not all private property can be redistributed by government for common good, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that not all private property can be considered as “material resources of the community” which the government has to redistribute equitably, Live Law reported.

The majority judgement, authored by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, said that the phrase “material resources” in Article 39(b) of the Constitution may include privately-owned resources, but not all private property would fall under its ambit.

Article 39(b), which is part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, requires the government to ensure that the “ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good”.

The majority opinion on Tuesday was authored by Chandrachud. Justice BV Nagarathna partially concurred with it while Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia dissented from the majority.

In 1977, Justice Krishna Iyer of the Supreme Court had held in a minority opinion that all resources that fulfil material needs are covered by the phrase “material resources of the community”, and so, the government could nationalise these resources. In two subsequent cases in 1982 and 1997, Constitution benches of the Supreme Court relied on the dissenting opinion, because of which the matter had to be referred to a nine-judge bench.

On Tuesday, the majority verdict held that Iyer’s opinion could not be accepted. The...

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