On 24 November 2020, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that the Union's continued occupation of requisitioned land for 33 years after its requisitioning authority had lapsed was 'condoning lawlessness'. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat's judgment read Article 300A as standing on the same footing as Articles 21 and 265 — a guarantee of the supremacy of the rule of law — and directed possession to be restored within three months. The case turns on the distinction between requisition and acquisition.