KULDIP SINGH BAGGA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in responose to an advertisement issued applied for the grant of a one acre of plot for S.A.S. Nagar Mohali under a scheme known as "Off the Shelf Allotment Scheme" on 29.8.1986 along with requisite earnest money of Rs. 2000/-. The application of the petitioner was scrutinized and vide letter dated 15.10.1986, from the Director of Industries, Punjab, to the petitioner, appended as Annexure P-1 to the petition, it was stated as under :-

(2.) The primary stand taken by the petitioner in the writ petition is that although he had fulfilled all the requirements for the allotment of a plot and the plot, in fact, had been allotted as per Annexure P-1, yet only the further formalities such as physical allotment of the plot by way of identification was left to the respondent-Corporation. It has also been asserted in para 9 of the petition that the petitioner was one of the first allottees for plots under the Scheme and a number of persons who had applied subsequently had, in fact, been granted lots. It has been asserted that after allotment vide Annexure P-1, the petitioner had spent a considers amount of money is sending his Technicians abroad for training for the purposes of setting up an industrial unit in the hope that the possession of the plot in question would be given to the petitioner and, as such, the respondent-Corporation was bound by the principles of promissory estoppel and could not deny a plot to the petitioner.

(3.) In reply to the aforesaid averments, the stand taken by the respondent-Corporation is that the letter Annexure P-1 was only an offer and not a letter of allotment and this was to be issued by the respondent-Corporation only after the requisite conditions set out in the letter of intent which had not been given to the petitioner, had been satisfied. It has also been asserted that as the number of plots available for allotment under the scheme were limited, it was left to the respondent-Corporation to adopt a policy to pick and choose so as to give plots to more suitable and meritorious applicants.