| DB upholds cancellation, imposed Rs 10000 costs to J&K Housing Board | | Allotment of plots under discretionary quota of Minister | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 25 (JNF): In a landmark judgment by Division Bench of State High Comprising Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Hasnain Masoodi has upheld the judgment of writ court to the extent for cancellation of plots made under the discretionary quota by the Minister with regards to plots of J&K Housing Board and dismissed the LPA filed by J&K Housing Board and imposed costs of Rs 10,000 to be deposited with the Secretary, High Court Legal Services Authority, Jammu within two weeks. Division Bench however set-aside the set aside the directions for allotment of plots to the petitioners issued by the Writ Court. This landmark judgment written by Chief Justice MM Kumar for the Division Bench after hearing NA Choudhary appearing for the J&K Housing Board whereas Senior Adv MK Bhardwaj with Adv Vasu Dubey appearing for the respondents and after examining the record in came to light 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. The petitioners, who were also applicants for allotment in the open merit, had challenged the distribution of State largesse in such an arbitrary manner. Eventually a direction was issued for taking requisite steps with a view to cancel the allotments made in terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court. The Single Judge (Justice TS Doabia since retired) has placed reliance on the judgment of e the Supreme Court rendered in the case of Common Cause -A Registered Society v. Union of India and ors. However, the basic judgment reported as Common Cause -A Registered Society v. Union of India and ors setting aside the allotments of petrol pumps continues to operate as is explained by their Lordships of the Supreme Court in the case of V. Purushotham Rao v. Union of India. While upholding the cancellation of allotments of plots made on discretion basis by the Minister concerned, Division Bench observed that the principles are so well settled that it does not require any detail discourse. Therefore, we are of the view that the judgment of the learned 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 their 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 31st of January, 2014.
The list of beneficiaries of the allotments include GL Kichlu s/o JL Kichlu, Deepak Shukla s/o Hari Ram Sharma, Atta Ali Mir s/o Ali Mohd, Abdul Aziz Wani s/o Ali Mohd Wani, Gh Mehdi Dar s/o Hassan Dar, Salman Ali s/o Ali Mohd Sagar, GM Chahoo s/o Mohd Sabir, Dr. Shamima Malik d/o Haji Abdul Gani Malik, Lakshmi Chand s/o Sukh Dev Dutt, Rakesh Sharma s/o Isher Dass. The names of petitioners are Rakesh Kapoor s/o Yash Pal Kapoor and Suresh Sharma s/o Shiv Kumar Sharma. |
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