The Supreme Court declined to order a single, uniform nationwide policy for regularising old unauthorised constructions, saying the issue is a policy matter that varies by state. The bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, asked States and Union Territories to consider the issue themselves instead.
What this changes for a title check
This case was about whether courts should force every state to follow one common rulebook for legalising buildings that were built without proper sanction. The Supreme Court left the issue to each state government, noting that Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Delhi already have their own settlement or regularisation policies while other states do not. For a title check, this means whether an unauthorised structure on a property can be regularised, and what fees or conditions apply, still depends entirely on which state the property is in, with no common central rule to fall back on. A lawyer should not assume a regularisation route used in one state will apply in another, and should check that specific state's own unauthorised-construction or settlement policy, or confirm none exists, rather than relying on a general expectation that courts will eventually harmonise the rules nationwide.