Srinagar, April 4 -- The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has held that a beneficiary of a government allotment cannot challenge conditions voluntarily accepted at the time of allotment, invoking the doctrine of estoppel to dismiss an appeal filed by a group of displaced Sopore shopkeepers against rent fixation.

A division bench of Justices Sindhu Sharma and Shahzad Azeem ruled that parties who accept the benefits of a government policy or contractual arrangement are bound by its terms and cannot subsequently "approbate and reprobate" by questioning those very conditions. The court also emphasised that differential rent based on location and commercial value does not amount to discrimination.

The appeal, filed by Mehraj-ud-Din P...