Directing a man to pay Rs.25,000 to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for making a false claim that he had approached it seeking allotment of a flat following the death of his father who had booked the house, the Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld a Single Bench order asking the DDA to conduct a mini-draw to allot an MIG accommodation to him.
The Bench passed the order on an appeal filed by the DDA against the Single Bench order directing the land development agency to conduct a mini-draw to allot a flat to the man, Ameet Kumar Khandelwal.
However, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Chief Justice Darmar Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw modified the Single Bench order directing the man to pay the price of the flat at the 2010 rate when he had filed a petition for its allotment.
Imposing the costs on the applicant, the Bench said: “For the evident false pleas taken by the respondent of having approached the appellant DDA in the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, we also direct the respondent to in addition pay costs of these proceedings in the sum of Rs.25,000 to the appellant DDA.’’
Modifying the Single Bench order, the Division Bench said: “We therefore partly allow this appeal by modifying the impugned order by directing that the cost to be paid by the respondent would be of the year 2010, when the writ petition was filed.”
“The mini-draw in accordance with the directions of the learned Single Judge be now held within eight weeks of today and a fresh demand-cum-allotment letter in accordance with this order be issued within four weeks therefrom,” the Bench added.
The father of Mr. Khandelwal had applied for a flat in a DDA scheme in 1979. However, he passed away in 1999 before he made it to the list of allottees which was released in 2002.
The DDA had sent an allotment letter to the residence of Mr. Khandelwal’s father which was returned undelivered. The Authority had also published the list of allottees in newspapers but there was no response to it. Thereafter, it cancelled the allotment in 2003.
Though the petitioner claimed that he had approached the DDA several times, the Court found that it was a false claim. He for the first time contacted the DDA only in 2009 when the application was changed to his name for refund of the registration money.
He had also hidden information about the death of his father from the DDA for three years, till the allotment of flat was made in 2002.
He had contacted the DDA in 2009 only when a broker had contacted him regarding the flat. He had admitted it in a letter written to the DDA.
The Court imposed the costs on Mr. Khandelwal for making a wrong submission to it on approaching the DDA.
Mr. Khandelwal had challenged the DDA’s opposition to his petition for allotment of a flat on the ground that the allotment letter was not issued at his father’s occupational address as per the DDA policy.
