Allotment of 31 halls/shops at Bahu Plaza
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 18: In the much publicized and controversial allotment of 31 shops/halls at Bahu Plaza, Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Virender Singh and Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir dismissed the appeal filed by two allottees against the orders of the Writ Court dated February 22, 2012 and June 6, 2012 whereby the Commissioner Secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD) was asked to file Action Taken Report (ART) with regard to the judgement of June 1, 2009 passed by the High Court in a batch of petitions.
The High Court vide its judgement dated June 1, 2009 had quashed the orders of the then Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad regarding cancellation of all the allotments at Bahu Plaza with the directions to the State Government to issue fresh orders only after giving reasonable opportunity of hearing to those who may be pre-judicially affected its order.
After hearing Senior Advocates DC Raina and A V Gupta appearing for the appellants and Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed appearing for private respondent Sunil Mahajan, Division Bench observed, “the arguments advanced by Senior Advocates may be attractive but are not appealing”.
“The Writ Court on June 1, 2009 had given a fresh hand to the Government to examine the impropriety or illegality of the allotments of shops/ halls made by JDA and pass appropriate orders as warranted under law after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to those who may be pre-judicially affected by the order”, the DB further observed.
The DB further observed that while dealing with OWP No 818/2007 filed by Sunil Mahajan against the allotment of hall in the favour of Sajjad Ahmed Bhat (brother of Union Health Minister), it came to the notice of the Writ Court that the State Government had not proceeded ahead at all following the judgement dated June 1, 2009 as such directions were issued to the State Government to file Action Taken Report on the illegal allotments made by JDA.
“Despite giving free hand to look into the impropriety or illegality of the allotments of shops/halls at Bahu Plaza, the concerned officials of the State were sleeping over the matter for the last more than 3 years”, the DB observed.
While expressing displeasure over the slackness of the State respondents, the DB said, “it is a simple case of inaction on the part of officials of State Government. In other words the Writ Court made the official respondents of the State answerable as they were sleeping over the matter. By no stretch of imagination, it can be said that observations made by the Writ Court are perse illegal”.
“Admittedly the notices have been issued upon certain allottees including the present appellants to which they have a right to respond. If their allotment is illegal, undoubtedly they have to be shown ouster and if legal, they can put forth their claim over the shops/halls, of which, they are already in possession”, the DB said.
With these observations, Division Bench dismissed the appeal filed by Tarun Bali and another.
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