Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Prasanna B. Varale, Supreme Court
Demarcate Plots & Public Facilities In Feasible Way To Ensure That Maximum Allottees Can Be Accommodated: Supreme Court Directs State Of Haryana
|The Supreme Court was dealing with a batch of Miscellaneous Applications along with a Writ Petition filed by Okhla Enclave Plot Holders Welfare Association and others.
The Supreme Court in a case has directed the Haryana State to demarcate plots and public facilities in a feasible way to ensure that maximum number of allottees can be accommodated.
The Court was dealing with a batch of Miscellaneous Applications along with a Writ Petition filed by Okhla Enclave Plot Holders Welfare Association and others.
The two-Judge Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Prasanna B. Varale ordered, “With respect to query (iii) the insistence by the Special Committee to increase the area available for plotted development was to ensure that the maximum number of eligible allottees who have waited for over 39 years to get a plot can be accommodated. The State of Haryana is directed to demarcate plots and public facilities in a feasible way to ensure that maximum number of allottees can be accommodated.”
AORs Ram Lal Roy, Ranbir Singh Yadav, Kaushal Yadav, Rakesh Kumar Singh, Vikas Upadhyay, Jinendra Jain, Purnima Jauhari, and Varun Mishra appeared for the Applicants while Senior AAG Lokesh Sinhal, ASGs Aishwarya Bhati, Archana Pathak Dave, Senior Advocates V.K. Khanna, Viping Sanghi, Nachiketa Joshi, and Amicus Curiae Rashmi Nandakumar appeared for the Respondents.
Facts of the Case
M/s Durga Builders (Pvt.) Ltd. purchased approximately 235 acres of land in Faridabad, Haryana for establishing a residential colony, and obtained licenses from the Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. It thereafter entered into a bilateral agreement with the Director, Town and Country Planning according to which the Builder was required to allot plots in three categories. Advertisements were issued, applications were invited, and allotments were made. The allottees made deposits; however, the Builder allegedly did not adhere to the terms and conditions of the allotment agreement. As a result, the allottees in 1996 filed Petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution of India before the Apex Court.
In 2016, the Court appointed Justice Vikramjit Sen, retired Judge of the Supreme Court, as a single member Special Committee. The said committee was constituted to resolve each and every issue involved in this matter. It comprised of five members and was chaired by the Senior Town Planner, Faridabad. It also had representatives from the plot holders’ associations. Thereafter, the Applications were filed praying that the Apex Court may request the Special Committee to consider the same and submit a further report. Further several applications were filed raising grievance that their claims had been wrongly rejected or not considered by the Special Committee.
Court’s Directions
The Supreme Court in the above regard, observed, “We have given our anxious consideration to the facts and issues raised by the DTCP in his affidavit of 22.09.2024 and also the response submitted by the learned Amicus Curiae.”
The Court issued the following directions –
i) The Special Committee is requested to scrutinize the claims of the remaining 480 allottees of the Okhla Enclave Plot Holders’ Welfare Association and finalise the list of eligible claimants within a reasonable period.
ii) The State of Haryana is directed to consider 65% of the land share for plotted development as agreed by them before the Special Committee.
iii) The State of Haryana is directed to prepare a fresh layout plan for the Project clearly marking the land available for allotment within a period of 10 weeks from today.
iv) The State of Haryana is directed to remove all encroachments at the earliest.
v) The State of Haryana is directed to initiate the scrutiny of Commercial category claimants within 2 weeks.
vi) The Colonizer is directed to pay the amounts due as per the judgement of the Supreme Court dated 03.10.2019 within 6 weeks.
vii) Parties are directed to comply with all the other directions laid down by the Special Committee as per the Report dated 16.01.2023.
viii) The Special Committee is requested to commence the process of scrutiny under the second phase.
ix) With regard to the terms of engagement, the Special Committee may fix its terms of engagement for the scrutiny of allottees for the next phase.
Accordingly, the Apex Court disposed of the Applications.
Cause Title- Okhla Enclave Plot Holders Welfare Association v. Union of India through Secretary & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 573)