Punjab and Haryana High Court puts Haryana on notice over plea against validation Act

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

The Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Second Amendment and Validation Act, 2020, came under the judicial scanner on Wednesday, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court putting the state on notice on a petition alleging that it had been enacted with the sole purpose of nullifying the judgment in the Ambience Mall case.

Taking up a petition filed by Sanjay Lal and other petitioners through senior counsel Vijay K Jindal and Akshay Kumar Jindal, Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma fixed a six-week deadline for Haryana and other respondents to file a reply to the writ petition. The Bench fixed February 18, 2021, as the next date of hearing in the matter.

The counsel asserted that the High Court had, in its judgment, categorical concluded that the alleged de-licensing of eight acres was in violation of relevant rules as the state’s act compromised open spaces, roads, parks, community buildings and schools. The Bench had also observed that the act of de-licensing was nothing but colourable exercise of power and deserved to be set aside.

The counsel added that the 2020 Act, enacted subsequently, was also violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and against the intent and purpose of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975, and Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Rules, 1976.

The petition was filed less than six months after the order paving way for construction of Ambience Mall in Gurugram on an area initially earmarked as residential was quashed while ordering a CBI probe.

The Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh had, in the judgment, asserted that the order of de-licensing a part of the residential area for commercial purposes was without authority of law and needed to be quashed.

A separate investigation by an independent agency into the possible collusion between the builder and the state authorities was recommended. The state was also directed to “take necessary consequential steps forthwith”.