Scores Of Citizens Cannot Be Made To Wait For Conversion Of Their Properties From Leasehold To Freehold: Delhi High Court Tells MoHUA & DDA

The Court was hearing connected matters concerning the conversion process and the DDA portal.

A Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Vikas Mahajan held, “Scores of citizens cannot be made to wait for conversion of their properties from leasehold to freehold in this manner.”

The Court observed that the DDA portal for conversion of immovable properties from leasehold to freehold had been taken down since February 2026, leading to a situation wherein all applications have been kept on hold.

The Bench noted that despite a previous direction for a meeting between MoHUA, DDA and other concerned authorities, no substantive decision has been taken by the MoHUA, DDA or L&DO.

Advocate Mrinalini Sen appeared for the Appellant and Advocate Chetan Sharma appeared for the respondents.

The minutes of the meeting held on August 14 recorded discussions on simplification of documentation, simplification of the conversion process and conversion charges.

The authorities had agreed that the list of documents ought to be reviewed and pruned to remove duplication and that online verification should be adopted wherever feasible. It was also discussed that the conversion process should be rationalised and simplified by reducing the number of procedural steps, making it more citizen-friendly, reducing processing time and minimising the compliance burden.

On conversion charges, the authorities noted that the rates presently applicable were fixed a considerable time ago and had not been revised since then. The rate structure, according to the minutes, required revisiting, while any revision had to have due regard to the quantum of fair public money/government revenue involved and be equitable to applicants.

The Court made it clear that any policy which would now be announced would have to be prospective in nature.

It noted that there were a large number of applications for which conversion charges had already been collected by the DDA and which were not being processed due to the pulling down of the portal.

Referring to its previous order dated July 31, 2026, the Bench recorded that 1,373 applications were pending, in which Rs.155.06 crores had already been collected by the DDA.

“It is made clear that in respect of all the past applications which are pending for which payments have been received, the same would have to be processed as per the policy prevalent at the relevant point in time,” the Court said.

The Bench also referred to a decision in Neera Sharma vs. Delhi Development Authority, observing that the applicable charges for conversion of land use would be as per the rates prevalent on the date of filing of the application, particularly where the applicant had already deposited the applicable charges along with the application.

The Court expressed dissatisfaction with the progress made by the authorities.

“Despite sufficient time having elapsed, there is no positive outcome that the Court has seen even today,” the Bench observed.

The Court also pointed out that although the minutes recorded that there was no restraint on leaseholders transferring, gifting, inheriting and mortgaging their properties as per the established procedure, none of the counsel appearing for the authorities could apprise the Court of the mechanism for transferring leasehold properties.

The Bench further observed that the minutes showed that the matter had been sent back by MoHUA to the DDA and L&DO for giving their recommendations.

“The Court is clearly not satisfied with the progress made since the previous order and is also not satisfied with the Minutes which have been placed on record,” the Bench said.

The Court observed that the minutes “actually reveal that there is no clarity on any policy whatsoever neither on documentation nor on the conversion charges.”

The MoHUA, DDA and L&DO have been given a last and final opportunity to place their final policy on record at least three days before the next date of hearing.

The matter has been listed for September 28, 2026, and has been directed to be treated as a part-heard matter. Ms. D. Thara of MoHUA and Mr. N. Sarvana Kumar, Vice Chairman, DDA, have been directed to join the proceedings on the next date.

Cause Title: Delhi Development Authority v. Mala Sahni Seth & Anr., [2026:DHC:7651-DB]

Appearance:

Appellant: Advocates Mrinalini Sen, Gauri Rajput

Respondents: Advocates Chetan Sharma, Ashish K Dixit, Umar Hashmi, Ayush Kumar, Saurabh Seth, Sukrit Seth, Neelampreet Kaur, Abhiroop Rathore, Kabir Dev, Sukhvir Singh, Rajveer Pandey