Commercial realty use frozen by HC

“To permit a person to make a bid for a barber shop and thereafter run a restaurant would be doing violence to the town planners scheme of things. It would also force residents of the area to travel distances to other markets in order to avail of services which were intended to be available in the local area,” a bench,comprising Justices Vikramjit Sen and A K Pathak,said.

A single bench of the High Court had restrained Mahesh Chand Goyal from a running banquet hall on the land allotted to him on the ground that he was not entitled to change the user unilaterally.

Aggrieved by the order,Goyal approached the division bench saying that since use of premises for a banquet hall was commercial in nature,no further restrictions could be imposed.

“Town Planning is a specialisation and work of art. It requires the planner to look into myriad needs of society and in that intricate perspective,specify the manner in which the portions of the city are to be used. This user has several shades and hues and to predicate that commercial user encompasses and accepts all such enterprise,is a dangerous oversimplification,” the bench said.

The court turned down the plea of the petitioner that the Master Plan of Delhi-2021 allowed such type of use and he be allowed to use the premises for running a banquet hall.

“The use stipulated would continue to hold force until and unless a change is effected by the authority concerned (DDA). However,the authority may not be empowered to whimsically change the user only because the party concerned is willing to pay conversion charges.

“A reading of documents (conveyance deed and occupancy certificate) makes it unquestionably clear that the building constructed on the plot was to be used for a particular aspect of running retail/departmental store. There is no gainsaying that the land could have been auctioned even for a banquet hall,which would subsequently have been in conformity with MPD-2021,” the court said.

The bench said,the land has to be used in consonance with the contract between the parties and no change of the user can be made contrary to the agreement even if the MPD Plan permits such user as it helps the parties to change the user only if the parties mutually agree to do so.

In this case,a piece of land was conveyed in 2003 by the DDA through a perpetual lease deed,stipulating that it be used for running retail or departmental shop.