Apex court stays High Court order on commercial sites

Mincing no words,the High Court had remarked that “corruption at high places has become the fashion of the day” while canceling the “fraudulent” allotment of 12 commercial sites made over three decades ago on the Chandigarh-Kalka road.

A probe into the carving out of the plots was also ordered by the High Court. In case of improper carving of plots,the structures,it said,will be demolished and converted into a parking. The guilty will also be prosecuted.

The directions had come after the Court had said,“The case is an example where the people at the helm of affairs of the Notified Area Committee,Manimajra,connected one way or the other with it,distributed 12 commercial sites among themselves while throwing all norms and rules relating to the sale of the property to the winds and concealing the same from the general public”.

The committee,constituted in April 1976,had six officials and five non-official nominated members. Hoshiar Singh and Joginder Singh Walia were the committee president and secretary,respectively,when the plots were allotted on July 2,1979.

The division bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and AN Jindal had observed,“Instead of throwing the public property in an open auction to attract the highest bid and to generate revenue for the state,the property was allotted by the president and the secretary either to their relations or to the relatives of the Deputy Commissioner,Chandigarh,or other officers directly or indirectly connected with the committee.”

The High Court bench had also said,“The plot and the superstructures thereon shall vest free from all encumbrances with the Municipal Corporation. The occupants of the sites shall vacate the same within three months. The allottees shall not be entitled to any compensation for the superstructure for the reason that they have utilised the public land since the date of allotment illegally and on the basis of fraudulent allotment. In case the allottees or their assignees,including the occupiers thereof,fail to vacate the premises within three months,the Municipal Corporation shall take possession of the same under the provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act”.

The bench had added that the official respondents will conduct an inquiry to see whether the plots had been carved out after following the due procedure. “If so,the plots along with the superstructure shall be put to sale by way of a public auction after giving wide publicity in at least three newspapers — English,Hindi and Punjabi,” the court had ruled.