Registration on percentage basis the way to promote apartments, Punjab and Haryana High Court told

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

The Chandigarh Administration may not be approving floor-wise building plans in the city, but the registration of property was being done in terms of percentage, the Punjab and Haryana High Court was told.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, the counsel on behalf of petitioner Resident Welfare Association submitted the registration of property on the basis of percentage was also a way to promote apartments. Taking a note of the submissions, the Division Bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Justice Vivek Puri fixed the case for further hearing on the matter for July 27.

The Bench, during the course of hearing, was also told that there was no provision for apartments as per the city’s master plan. But the buildings were being sold floor-wise as apartments after ignoring the master plan. As such, a three-storey house was being converted into three units putting unnecessary pressure on the city’s infrastructure.

A reply filed in the High Court on behalf of the UT assistant state officer earlier said the administration was not permitting floor-wise building plan sanctions. But the plan for the entire building was being approved.

Nearly five years after the rising of the apartments from the debris of bungalows came under the judicial scanner, the High Court on a previous date of hearing had asked the Chandigarh Administration to file a specific affidavit on the issue of approving floor-wise building plans.

The direction came on a petition filed against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents by the Resident’s Welfare Association and another petitioner through senior advocate Puneet Bali and counsel BS Patwalia.

Appearing before the Bench, Bali placed heavy reliance on certain documents to contend that the UT was blatantly following the practice of sanctioning floor-wise building plans. The practice, he added, ran contrary to the statement by UT senior standing counsel on February 18, 2020.