Punjab: Abolition of NOC to benefit only regularised colonies

Rajmeet Singh

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Chandigarh, February 7

The state government decision to abolish No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for registry of land aims at making things easy for plot holders in regularised colonies, who are facing problems in getting the certificates from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Local Government.

A committee in the AAP government led by CM Bhagwant Mann has held several meeting over the last two years to streamline the process of monitoring and issuing online NOCs. But due to multiple agencies involved in verifying the records of the document seekers, there have been complaints of delay in issuing of the NOCs. There were many cases in which the sale agreements of such colonies were executed before March 19, 2018, but their physical existence could not be verified from Google images.

Officials clarified that the waiver in no way would benefit the colonisers or plot holders in the colonies that do not fit into the laid-down criteria under the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions for Regularisation of Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2018. To tackle the problem of illegal colonies, the CM in a meeting today asked officials to draft a Bill in this regard. Recently, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had flagged the issue of mushrooming of illegal colonies.

Sources said waiving the NOC involved legal complication as the matter pertaining to illegal colonies was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The state government has given an undertaking in the high court that it will not register plots and properties in illegal colonies till a decision on issues raised in a public interest litigation (PIL) were not dealt with. The Advocate General (AG) also attended today’s meeting of the CM as the draft Bill involved legal prospective.

The CM in a statement said that the noose around illegal colonisers need to be tightened for which a new law must be enacted. He has asked the officers to draft the new Bill before the next session of the state assembly so that it can be duly approved in the Vidhan Sabha.

Officially, there are around 14,000 illegal colonies in the state, but the figure can be higher.

Policy amendment pending

An amendment for regularising plots in unauthorised colonies where construction had taken place till December 31, 2022, is pending at government level. The proposed waiver has a rider that the execution of the sale agreement should have taken place before March 19, 2018. The proposed amendments also entail recovery of regularisation charges from plot holders in colonies, where 25 per cent of the plots have been sold, besides legal proceedings against defaulters.

‘Verify on basis of registered sale deed’

An important clause for issuing the NOC mandates that the execution of sale agreement for the property should have taken place before March 19, 2018. But there have been cases where the dates of execution of sale agreement have been shown in back dates by tampering with the stamp papers. “If the verification is done on the basis of registered sale deed or registered power of attorney, then there is no need for an NOC,” said a government functionary.