PRITAM SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition has been filed by Pritam Singh son of Ishar Singh, Jagbachan Singh and Jagjivan Singh sons of Niranjan Singh. It has been mentioned that the petitioners are owners in possession of plots No. 92 and 93, measuring 220 Sq. yards, situated in village Sunderpur, tehsil Thanesar, District Kurukshetra, which is within the Municipal limits of Municipal Committee, Thanesar. The petitioners submitted a plan for getting sanction of the Municipal Committee for construction of a house on the plots mentioned above. Requisite fee etc. were also deposited by the petitioners on February 5, 1992. However, the sanction was declined on July 13, 1992, on the ground that the plots in question fell within the controlled area of Kurukshetra and, therefore, the permission had to be obtained from the Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana as per the requirement under the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas (Restriction of Unregulated Development) Act, 1963 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). The appeal of the petitioners was also dismissed by the Sub -Divisional Officer (Civil), Thanesar, on November 19, 1992. The petitioners had earlier filed a writ petition in this Court - C.W.P. No. 1696 of 1993 (Jagbachan Singh Vs. Deputy Commissioner, Kurukshetra, etc.) but on the preliminary objection having been taken by the respondents that a revision petition lay, the petitioner was relegated to that remedy. As no decision was taken in the revision petition, the petitioners filed the present writ petition on May 30, 1994. It has been averred in this writ petition that a number of houses have already been constructed by the inhabitants of the locality after obtaining sanction from the Municipal Committee. Even plan submitted by one of the petitioners, Jagbachan Singh earlier was sanctioned by the Municipal Committee and the moment he started raising construction the sanction was withdrawn and the construction already raised was ordered to be demolished. That plot of Jagbachan Singh adjoins the present. The writ petition of Jagbachan Singh - C.W.P. No. 11446 of 1992 challenging the order of withdrawal of sanction was allowed by a Division Bench of this Court on January 19, 1993, in which it was held that since the plot in question in that case fell within the Municipal limits, the provisions of the 'Act' did not apply to the land within the Municipal limits.

(2.) IN the written statement filed on behalf of the respondent - Municipal Committee, it is admitted that the limits of the respondent -Municipality were extended on October 1, 1984, vide Notification No. 25/11/82 -C -1 dated October 1, 1984, and the land of the petitioners in dispute was included within the limits of the Municipality.

(3.) THE contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners is that since the plots in dispute admittedly fall within the Municipal limits, the question of application of the provisions of the 'Act' does not arise. The reliance is on the Division Bench Judgment in Jagbachan Singh's case (C.W.P. 11446/92) referred to above. In the said judgment, it was observed as under