BIMLA DEVI Vs. ALLAHABAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is about constitutions made unauthorisedly and the scope of condoning the unauthorised structures by an exercise known as compounding. The issue plainly is on what is the concept, in urban planning, of condoning an unauthorised construction on the payment of a penalty and at what stage an unauthorised construction falls within the realm of an illegal act, the condonation of which the law does not permit under any circumstances.

(2.) The facts on record in this case are :In Allahabad, the north sector of it, at the crossing of Beli Road and Batuk Krishna Banerjee Road, is a property which originally was owned by Lt. General D.W. Chakrovorti. It was purchased subsequently by the late Kedar Nath Tiwari, who became its owner. The municipal number of the property is 2-A, Beli Road. Kedar Nath Tiwari died leaving the property in the hands, of his heirs, namely, Smt. Bimala Devi, his widow and Shri Nirmal Chandra Tiwari, his son. During the pendency of the present writ petition, Nirmal Chandra Tiwari, the petitioners No. 2, died. His heirs were permitted to be brought on record.

(3.) The facts which become issues between the petitioners, the Allahabad Development Authority and the State of Uttar Pradesh, was an aspect on which there is no issue. The petitioners admit that their predecessor-in-interest, the late Kedar Nath Tiwari, had submitted a plan for constructing a lodging house for students, regard being had to the circumstances, that the property was near the Allahabad University and that were easing out a shortage for housing students. In the petition they admit when they submit that before the construction started, on the advice of the contractor, with a view to make the ultimate finished building a paying proposition, i.e., profitable return on the capital, deviations were made from the original plan, as sanctioned by the Allahabad Development Authority. It is admitted that the building as it stands completed now has a market and flats for rent. The contention is that a lot of money has been spent in constructing the building and people have been inducted into the building as tenants, students in the lodging part of it and shopkeepers in the market part of it.