The Indian Express   06.09.2012

Punjab HC quashes town planners’ notices to residents of Gurgaon

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed the Directorate of Town and Country Planning’s (DTCP) notices to people for misuse of property, saying the department has no jurisdiction over areas within municipal corporations.

Dealing with a bunch of over 80 petitions, wherein residents of Gurgaon had challenged the DTCP’s notices, a division bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice R N Raina has said the department cannot issue such notices.

The court said only the municipal commissioner would be the competent authority to issue such notices and take appropriate action. The judgment was significant because all DTCP notices issued since 2008, when the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon was formed, would, henceforth, be redundant and scrapped.

The court said action on any violation of property rules could be initiated only by the municipal commissioner.

The court also dismissed Haryana Advocate General Hawa Singh Hooda’s argument that the Municipal Act was enacted to prevent haphazard and sub-standard development in a “controlled area”.

In its judgment, the High Court said different authorities have been empowered to act in their areas of jurisdiction such as the municipal commissioner within the civic agency’s limits and the DTCP in “controlled area and scheduled roads” outside the municipal limits. This was done to avoid overlapping of jurisdiction.