S P KHANNA Vs. DDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before this Court got himself registered with the respondentDDA for allotment of a residential flat under its Vth SFS Scheme, which is a self finance scheme. Vide letter dated 6/8.4.1993, the respondent allocated a flat on the first floor in C-7, Jasola to the petitioner. However, in the year 1999, a specific flat bearing number 37-T in Block-7 of Jasola was allotted to the petitioner, which was a third floor flat, though the allocation of the petitioner was on the first floor. The case of the petitioner is that he had come to know of the aforesaid allotment only in the year 2001 when he came back to Delhi after his treatment. According to the petitioner, he immediately represented to DDA and informed that allotment of third floor flat was not acceptable to him on account of his age as well as the ailments he was suffering from.

(2.) Since there has been no change in the allotment made to the petitioner despite his repeated requests to DDA, he is before this Court seeking the following reliefs:

(3.) In my view, the petitioner has not been able to explain the inordinate delay of 12 years in coming to the Court after he had come to know of the allotment made to him on the third floor. In the absence of positive response from DDA, the petitioner could not have kept on representing to it from time to time instead of coming to the Court for redressal of his grievance. The period of 14 years from the allotment of a specific flat on the third floor and 12 years from the date when the petitioner claims to have come to know of the aforesaid allotment cannot be ignored in absence of any plausible explanation from the petitioner. By not remaining vigilant for enforcement of his legal rights and not availing the remedy available to him in law, the petitioner is clearly guilty of laches. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to entertain this petition in exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution after such a long period.