High Court sets aside rejection of jhuggi dwellers’ housing claims
Bench says right to housing is part of Constitution’s Article 21, directs CHB to reconsider applications under Small Flats Scheme 2006.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside CHB’s rejection of jhuggi dwellers’ housing claims, calling it a violation of natural justice. (File Photo) The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the Chandigarh Housing Board’s (CHB’s) decision to reject the claims of several jhuggi (slum) dwellers for flats under the Chandigarh Small Flats Scheme 2006, holding that the order was passed without issuing any notice or granting them a hearing.
A Division Bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Mandeep Pannu was hearing a petition filed by Rajesh Kumar Giri and others, who said their cases had been duly recommended by the Estate Officer and the CHB through official communications, but were later rejected abruptly.
The court noted that the petitioners’ applications were under active consideration for allotment when the housing board rejected them without following basic principles of natural justice. It said the right to housing formed an integral part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, and that slum dwellers were entitled to fair consideration under the rehabilitation scheme.
Calling the impugned order dated September 18, 2025, “unsustainable”, the Bench quashed it and directed respondents 3 and 4, which include the CHB, to reconsider the petitioners’ claims either under the 2006 scheme or any other suitable rehabilitation scheme. It asked the authorities to pass a fresh and reasoned order within two months of receiving the court’s directive.
The Bench also directed all parties to maintain status quo until the competent authority takes a fresh decision.
The Chandigarh Small Flats Scheme, 2006, was notified by the Union Territory (UT) Administration of Chandigarh on November 6, 2006, as a rehabilitation plan for residents of unauthorised habitations in Chandigarh. Under this scheme, identified jhuggi dwellers from certain “notified colonies” were to be allotted one-room flats on a monthly licence basis.
The scheme was intended to replace unsafe, cramped, and unhygienic slums on encroached public land with small flats built by CHB, thereby offering permanent shelter, improving living conditions, and regularising habitation.
The scheme originally identified 18 colonies (clusters of jhuggis) via a biometric survey carried out in March 2006. Only those living in these colonies and whose names appeared in the March-2006 biometric survey of the UT Administration were eligible.
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