DDA Vs. HARISH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SHRI Khairati Lal, grandfather of the respondent Harish Kumar was a resident of West Punjab and upon partition of this country moved to Delhi as a refugee. It was time of chaos and the Government was busy in maintaining law and order. Everybody had to fend for himself and find some source to keep the body and the soul alive i.e. earn bread and butter. These unfortunate persons (refugees) settled wherever they could find land and commenced petty business there from. Some of them rose to dazzling heights and became exemplary entrepreneurs. Some continued to languish because the inefficient bureaucracy failed to implement the social welfare policies formulated by the Government. One such policy was the Gadgil assurance given on the floor of the Parliament by the Government that in Delhi, all refugees would be resettled in -situ on the land in their occupation wherefrom some were carrying on business and some had built temporary shelters over their heads. Late Sh. Khairati Lal could not get the benefit of this policy. On settling in Delhi he found bread and butter on a parcel of land ad -measuring 184 sq. yards which later on was given Municipal No. T -31 Basti Tantwali, Motia Khan, Delhi wherefrom he carried on business as a junk dealer and sale of old Motor Spare parts. The land was vested in the erstwhile Delhi Improvement Trust and since 1.1.1952 he started paying damages for use of the land under Section 7(2) of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1958. With the creating of the Delhi Development Authority and said Authority taking over the properties of the Delhi Improvement Trust he started paying damages to DDA till the year 1967. He died on 6.2.1967.

(2.) BEFORE he died, Sh. Khairati Lal executed a will on 26.1.1967, bequeathing his interest in the land in question in favour of his grandson Harish Kumar, who after the death of late Sh. Khairati Lal on 6.2.1967 started paying damages to DDA and took over the business of his grandfather.

(3.) A redevelopment scheme of Motia Khan was formulated by DDA in the year 1975 and hence the same required the lands under occupation of various persons to be cleared. It is known to one and all, now a part of history of this country, that internal emergency was proclaimed in India in June 1975 and the fundamental rights of the citizens of India were suspended. In the regime where the Rule of Law got truncated, one fine morning the demolition squad of DDA came with bulldozers and uprooted all and sundry from Motia Khan and repossessed all the lands. The occupants were left high and dry.