The Hindu        28.01.2011

High Court nod for demolition of illegal structures on DDA land

‘Petitioners had not been able to prove ownership of the land'

The Delhi High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for demolition of unauthorised temporary structures on a Delhi Development Authority land in North Delhi, dismissing the claim of a bunch of petitioners on the land.

Dismissing the petition filed by a group of so-called residents of “Bhagat Singh Park Extension” in North Delhi, Justice S. Muralidhar said the petitioners had not been able to prove the ownership of the land.

The petitioners submitted that the residents of the colony had purchased the land from the peasants of the nearby Siraspur village, and it had been included in the list of the unauthorised colonies prepared by the Delhi Government for regularisation.

They also claimed that they had written to the Government about the status of the colony and the latter had issued a provisional certificate to them to this effect.

However, counsel for the Authority submitted that the land had been purchased by it and its owners had alre-ady been paid compensations.

Counsel further submitted that the Authority had planned to build a hospital, shift the timber market and build houses for the economically weaker section of society on the land.

The Authority also informed the Court that there were only some temporary structures on a portion of the land and about 90 per cent of it was vacant.

The Authority had earlier several times demolished the temporary structures but the encroachers had rebuilt them each time.

Justice Muralidhar dismissed the petition saying that there was a contradiction in the submissions of the petitioners that they had purchased the land and at the same time they said that it was an unauthorised colony.

Besides, the scheme for regularisation of the listed unauthorised colonies did not mean regularisation of empty lands, Justice Muralidhar observed.