High Court refuses to stay process of regularisation

The plea had been made by H R Suri,an architect and town planner,through his counsel Anil Aggarwal.

In his petition,Suri said the court was yet to decide a previous application made by him questioning the power of the Centre,the city government and the DDA to regularise unauthorised colonies. He contended that the city government could not take a decision on a sub judice matter.

While the old petition had sought a direction to restrain all relevant authorities from taking any decision to regularise unauthorised colonies,the new petition referred to a media report in which Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had promised to regularise the city’s 917 unauthorised colonies soon.

On September 3,Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna approved regularisation of 895 of the 917 colonies. Following the L-G’s direction,the Delhi government has asked the three municipal corporations to consult architects to make layout plans.

Najmi Waziri,chief counsel for the Delhi government,told the court that it was the duty of the state to frame policies which supported the aspirations of the citizens.

“There are about 4-5 lakh people who are residing in these unauthorised colonies and they cannot just be wished away at the whim of the petitioner. It is the fundamental right of any citizen to move freely within India and set up wherever he or she so wishes and all Indians are welcome in Delhi,” he said.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit welcomed the court’s decision and said it was a boost to the regualrisation policy. “We are very thankful to the court for its decision. If they had said anything against regularisation it would have greatly delayed the process,” she said.