Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 25: In a landmark judgment, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Hasnain Massodi today upheld the judgment of writ court whereby allotment of Housing Board plots under the discretionary quota of Minister was cancelled. The DB, while dismissing the LPA filed by the Housing Board, imposed costs of Rs 10,000 to be deposited with the Secretary, High Court Legal Services Authority within two weeks.
After hearing Advocate NA Choudhary appearing for the J&K Housing Board whereas Senior Advocate MK Bhardwaj with Advocate Vasu Dubey for the respondents, DB observed, “the examination of record reveals that no public notice inviting applications was issued and method of allotment of plots on discretionary quota was carved out”.
“The allotments were made on the discretion exercised by the Minister in-charge Housing. The petitioners, who were also applicants for allotment in the open merit, had challenged the distribution of State largesse in such an arbitrary manner”, the DB said.
While upholding the cancellation of allotments of plots made on discretion basis by the Minister concerned, Division Bench observed, “the principles are so well settled that it does not require any detailed discourse. Therefore, we are of the view that the judgment of the Single Judge does not warrant interference and all necessary steps for cancellation of allotment of plots under discretionary quota must be taken by the appellants”.
“If any allottee has raised construction on the discretionary quota plots, it is at his or her own risk and responsibility and cannot be a basis for excluding such allottees from the operation of law for cancelling the allotment of his/her plot. The needful shall be done within a period of two months and a status report in this regard be filed with the Registrar Judicial of this Court on or before January 31, 2014”, the DB directed.
The Division Bench, however set-aside the directions for allotment of plots to the petitioners issued by the Writ Court.
The list of beneficiaries of the allotments include former Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation Salman Ali, son of sitting Minister, Ali Mohd Sagar, G L Kichlu, son of J L Kichlu, Deepak Shukla, son of Hari Ram Sharma, Atta Ali Mir, son of Ali Mohd, Abdul Aziz Wani, son of Ali Mohd Wani, Gh Mehdi Dar, son of Hassan Dar, G M Chahoo, son of Mohd Sabir, Dr Shamima Malik, daughter of Haji Abdul Gani Malik, Lakshmi Chand, son of Sukh Dev Dutt and Rakesh Sharma, son of Isher Dass.
The petitioners were Rakesh Kapoor, son of Yash Pal Kapoor and Suresh Sharma, son of Shiv Kumar Sharma.
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