Check builder-official nexus: High Court to Haryana

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, September 19

Taking cognisance of unholy and clandestine nexus prevailing between builders/colonisers and the Department of Town and Country Planning, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Haryana Chief Secretary to ensure updation of revenue record to curb the registration of sale deeds pertaining to acquired land in the state.

The Chief Secretary has been asked to immediately requisition reports from all quarters regarding acquired land before issuing specific directions to the Department of Revenue to update the relevant revenue record and make the information available to all Registrars/Sub-Registrars in the state. The Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Kuldeep Tiwari also directed the Chief Secretary to mark an inquiry into the complete episode pertaining to the registration of sale deed of acquired land mentioned in a petition before it. Directions were also issued to fix the responsibility of the delinquent officers/officials.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Tiwari also directed the Chief Secretary to mark an in-house inquiry into the grant of licence to the private builders/petitioners for development of a residential colony over government land before fixing the liability of the delinquent officer(s)/official(s).

The ruling came as the Bench dismissed with Rs 1 lakh cost a petition seeking release from acquisition “petition land” measuring 2.05 acres in Badshahpur village in Gurugram district.

The “petition land”, along with some other tracts, were “brought to acquisition” for construction of Badshahpur drain. The acquisition was carried out through the issuance of a notification and a declaration on March 1, 1971.

The petitioners purchased the “petition land” in 2008, about 37 years after lawful termination of the relevant acquisition proceedings, and managed to procure the requisite licence from the Department of Town and Country Planning concerned in 2010 for the development of colony(ies) on it. “The petitioners have deviously woven a web of artificial illegality, entangling the acquisition proceedings, which were terminated in the early 1970s. The instant writ petition appears to be an ill-advised motion replete with a plethora of infirmities, as it proffers an intrepid venture of the petitioners, which emits a smell of foul play. It also divulges the scandalous and unholy nexus prevailing inter se builders/colonisers and the Department of Town and Country Planning,” Justice Tiwari asserted.