Backdated stamp papers used to regularise Kharar colony, HC told

The Punjab and Haryana High Court was today told that numerous illegal colonies had been regularised, creating traffic and waterlogging menace in Mohali district. One of them, a Division Bench of the high court was told, was regularised on the strength of backdated stamp papers.

As a petition filed in public interest against the illegal colonies allegedly regularised by the State in collusion with the private respondent came up for resumed hearing, the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry was told that a colony in Kharar was developed after the statutory cut-off date of March 19, 2018. But it was still regularised under the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2018.

The petitioner asserted that the colony could not have been considered for regularisation because Section 5 of the Act barred relief to any such construction raised or continued after the cut-off. He added a cut-off date imposed under Section 5. The relief of regularisation was unavailable during the operation of the Act in respect of several categories of unauthorized development, including “any unauthorised construction or development raised or continued on or after 19th day of March 2018,” he added.

The Bench was further told that the colony, which came up after 2018, was illegally regularised by playing a fraud upon the State. The counsel added that the colony was built in 2013 after a chunk of land was sold to the “managing director”. The requisite stamp paper was issued on September 4, 2019. “However, in collusion with the state, the stamp paper was shown to be ‘backdated of 2012’. As it was within the cut-off date, the colony was regularised, my lord.

“Numerous illegal colonies like this has been regularised, which have created traffic and waterlogging menace in the district,” he added. The case is pending for further consideration.