Admn gets rap for being at loggerheads with judiciary

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8

In a rare indictment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has hauled up the Chandigarh Administration for being at loggerheads with the judiciary. Also castigating it for not adopting “positive thinking”, Justice Rajive Narain Raina has further directed the UT Finance Secretary (FS) to appear before the court and explain firsthand “what is happening”.

He has been asked to spell out the steps taken to clean “Augean stables” in the Estate Office. Justice Raina also directed the Finance Secretary to consider “whether it would be appropriate for this court in the present case to open a controlled window for grievance redressal for the common man…”

Justice Raina added that there was abject failure on the part of the Administration to act in accordance with law and within a reasonable time frame. “It is well to remember patience too has limits of endurance while even metals suffer fatigue”.

The rap on the knuckles came in the case of Sanjay Majithia and other petitioners against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents. In the case, the court had passed an order on April  24, 2014, directing the Chandigarh Administration to mutate a property to the extent of 75 per cent undisputed ownership in the petitioners’ names.

However, steps were not taken by the Administration to enter the mutation in the record of rights despite the directions. In the meantime, a suit filed in the matter was decreed on February 27 in the petitioners’ favour and they became the owner of 100 per cent share in the suit property.

Taking up the matter, Justice Raina asserted that the civil court decree came into existence on February 27 in the petitioners’ favour, after the suit was decreed and they declared owners of the remaining disputed 25 per cent. However, even after eight months, the mutation was not sanctioned. 

“The UT Administration appears to be at loggerheads with the civil court and this court in this matter by its functionaries throwing a spanner in the works. This is not a good mindset or positive thinking required of those who are paid for public dealing. The situation deserves to be remedied with a firm hand.

“Therefore, in order to understand the internal mechanism which lies hidden in the folds of the Estate Office, delaying this simple matter to the point of contumacious conduct, let the Finance Secretary, UT, appear in the court on the next date of hearing to explain firsthand what is happening, for this court to gauge and know as to why stringent action should not be taken against those who continue to violate the order of this court….

“He would also apprise this court of the steps being taken or which are contemplated to clean the Augean stables in the Estate Office, which have brought it mostly to disrepute in the eyes of the public as a place where nothing moves without ransom. Citizens should not be pushed to exasperation and left fed up trying desperately to pursue their legitimate rights in the catacombs of the Estate Office, Sector 17, Chandigarh….

“The FS would also apprise the court of the established procedure, rules and regulations made by the UT Administration or adopted from Punjab law covering the subject matter of mutation of properties in Chandigarh governed by The Capital of Punjab (Development & Regulation) Act, 1952, and the rules, regulations and instructions notified thereunder and the relevant law quoting chapter and verse so that no doubts are left to imagination to entail an adjournment.”