DARGHA NAJEEBUDDIN FIRDOUSI Vs. DELHI DEVLOPMENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Asserting their claim of ownership over properties purportedly falling in khasra No. 1151/3 of Village Mehrauli, New Delhi, the Petitioners have raised a challenge to the demolition process of removing encroachments upon the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, New Delhi ["Park"], being undertaken by Delhi Development Authority ["DDA"] to protect and preserve the Park's heritage. The Petitioners' primary grievance is that DDA's demolition order targets unauthorized occupations specifically in the vicinity of Village Ladha Sarai, rather than Village Mehrauli. Consequently, they argue that such orders should not extend to, nor affect, their properties.

(2.) During the course of proceedings, it came to the Court's attention that there are several petitions pending on the subject matter at hand before the Bench of Single Judge of this Court. Additionally, this Bench is concurrently considering a Public Interest Litigation ["PIL"],[W.P.(C) 4302/2015. ] that has significant relevance to the ongoing demolition operations conducted by the DDA. Thus, in order to avoid any conflicting directions and also given the commonality and overlap in the issues and contentions urged in all these petitions, we considered it apposite to tag all the matters and render a consolidated judgement. To ensure clarity and with consensus of all parties, this judgment will predominantly address the facts and arguments presented in W.P.(C) 1845/2023.

(3.) The facts and proceedings germane for contextual understanding of the present lis, are as follows: