Eminent Domain - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition eminent-domain

Definition :

Eminent domain, the right which a Government retains over the estates of individuals to resume them for public use.

The right of 'eminent domain' is the right of the sovereign State, through its regular agencies, to reassert, either temporarily or permanently, its dominion over any portion of the soil of the State including private property without its owner's consent on account of public exigency and for the public good. Eminent domain is the highest and most exact idea of property remaining in the Government, or in the aggregate body of the people in their sovereign capacity. It gives the right to resume possession of the property in the manner directed by the Constitution and the laws of the State, whenever the public interest requires it. The term 'expropriation' is practically synonymous with the term 'eminent domain', Jilubhai Nanbhai Khachar v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1995 SC 142 (158): 1995 Supp (1) SCC 596.

The inherent powers of governmental entity to take privately owned property, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 541.