MANINDER KAUR Vs. MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners seek for a direction against respondents Nos.1 to 3 to curb the menace of commercial building activities coming up in the residential colony of Punjabi Bagh at Patiala as being illegal and arbitrary. The persons, who, according to the petitioner, have violated the zoning requirements for Patiala Town are respondents No.4 to 6 and are Doctors by profession, who have set up clinics in a residential colony, the professional activity being commercial in nature.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners refers to an observation made by this Hon'ble Court on 24.02.2004 when the Bench of this Hon'ble Court had observed that for effectively and comprehensively deciding the grievance of the petitioners and keeping in view the larger public interest, the impleadment of the State of Punjab through Secretary, Local Government was necessary. Learned counsel appearing for the State had been directed to give an affidavit on behalf of the Secretary as to how the residential land had been allowed to be used for commercial purposes. Learned counsel appearing for the private respondents was also directed to seek instructions from his clients whether they were willing to shift their activity outside the residential colony. The contention of the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners is, therefore, that the directions given by this Court have not been complied with and the petitioners are entitled to obtain a relief as sought for in the writ petition.

(3.) It must be remembered that the directions given by this Hon'ble Court on 24.02.2004 could only be seen as provisional and cannot amount to any adjudication of rights between parties or a decision whether the property was residential or non- residential. The Hon'ble Bench was merely dealing with the contention of the petitioners that it was a residential property and wanted the facts to be elicited from the contesting respondents whether they wanted to shift outside the residential area.