The High Court has directed the Delhi Development Authority to hand over possession of a flat to the family of a deceased man, whose allotment was cancelled over non-payment, saying the land owning agency sent the allotment letter to the wrong address.
“In the absence of proper communication of allotment or demand thereupon, there cannot be any cancellation due to non-payment,” Justice Prathiba M. Singh said.
‘Illegal, contrary to law’
The case dates back to 1979, when the DDA issued a scheme for allotment of residential flats in Dwarka. Delhi resident J.C. Madan had applied for a flat then and was declared successful for the allotment.
After Madan died in 1984, his wife and son kept pursuing the matter with the authorities.
“The application by the husband of plaintiff no. 1 [wife Kaushalya] and father of plaintiff no.2 dates back to 1979. The family has waited for more than 39 years for allotment of an MIG flat. The record speaks volumes about the complete non-caring attitude of an authority like the DDA. The demand-cum-allotment letter has been generated in multiple originals and not a single one of them was sent and delivered to the plaintiffs. Thus, the cancellation is illegal and contrary to law,” Justice Singh said.
Change of address
The DDA had claimed that the family had informed it late about the death of the original allottee and also sent the demand-cum-allotment letter to their address.
But it was cancelled due to non-payment of the amount. It had also alleged that the family had not informed the body about change of address.
The family, however, had said it had informed the agency about its new residential address on time.
The court directed the agency to give the flat to the family within four weeks of receiving the payment.
Also, it said, in case this flat was not available they should be given another one. The original records of the DDA were sketchy, containing only a few pages and had no other documents in them, the court observed.
“The DDA files go to show that it does not preserve [for whatever reason] the correspondence in a proper manner. There is no method by which a citizen can ascertain as to whether his/ her letters have reached the DDA and if so, how long he/ she should wait for a reply. For an ordinary litigant, approaching court is the last resort,” the court said.
Copy of order
It also said that a copy of its order needs be sent to the Lieutenant-Governor and the DDA Vice-Chairman for issuing appropriate orders and directions with regard to maintenance of records by the agency, and for considering setting up an online feature on its portal to enable proper and complete tracking of the current status of files and correspondence.
