HIRENDRA GUPTA Vs. LAND & BUILDING DEPARTMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been preferred by the appellant/petitioner against the order dated 14.08.2018, passed by the learned Single Judge dismissing his writ petition wherein he had prayed for issuance of a writ of mandamus to the respondent No. 1/Land and Building Department, the respondent No. 2/Additional District Magistrate/LAC, Northwest Delhi and the respondent No.3/DDA to consider his application for allotment of an alternate plot in lieu of land acquired under "Large Scale Acquisition, Development Disposal of Land in Delhi" (hereinafter referred to as "the Scheme"), declared by the Union of India vide letter dated 02.05.1961.

(2.) The averments made by the appellant/petitioner in the writ petition were that ancestral land belonging to his father was acquired by the respondents in 1980, to the extent of 874 bighas and 4 biswas situated in Village Chowkri Mubarkbad, Delhi for which compensation to the tune of Rs.46,13,531/- was awarded on 25.01.1982. Out of the said compensation, the share of the appellant/ petitioner's father came to a sum of Rs.4,15,217/-. Under the Scheme, the respondents proposed to allot an alternative land in lieu of the acquired land. Father of the appellant/petitioner also applied for an alternative plot vide application dated 15.10.1983, but no land was allotted to him during his lifetime. Through a registered Will dated 10.07.2012, the appellant/ petitioner's father bequeathed all his rights qua the alternative plot to him. When repeated representations made by the appellant/petitioner to the respondents/authorities for allotment of an alternative plot did not elicit a favourable response, he filed W.P.(C) 1460/2017 for relief.

(3.) Vide impugned order dated 14.08.2018, the learned Single Judge dismissed the captioned writ petition on the ground of delay and laches by noting that the application for allotment of an alternative plot was made by the father of the appellant/petitioner way back in the year 1983 and another similar application was submitted by him in August, 2011, i.e. after more than two decades, with no explanation offered by him for this inordinate delay. The writ petition was opposed by the respondent No.3/DDA on the ground that the death certificate of the father of the appellant/petitioner had not been filed and further, in the Will dated 13.07.2012, there was no description of the subject property and also on the ground that the writ petition was hit by delay and laches. The learned Single Judge accepted the submissions made by the respondent No.3/DDA that there being no explanation whatsoever for the delay of two decades in moving the application for alternative allotment/revival of the old application filed by the father of the appellant/petitioner in the year 1983, his petition was hit by delay and laches and consequently, the same was dismissed.