Find a solution and decide about Sainik Farms regularisation: HC – The Times of India

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the issue of regularisation of Sainik Farms is “oscillating” between Centre and Delhi govt, and a solution must be found.
“We can’t permit this to go on and on. You have to take a policy decision. We are not saying what to do. Either regularise or don’t… (but) you are just dragging. ‘Humein na karna pade, court kar de (‘let’s not do it, let the court do it’). All of you sit together and find a solution, that is what we propose,” a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela told Centre’s counsel, taking note of the delay in the decision-making process.
HC stressed that Centre, Delhi govt, DDA and MCD must meet and find a solution, pointing out that neither was there a demolition action nor regularisation of the colony. It further decided to involve the additional solicitor general and Delhi govt’s standing counsel Sameer Vashisht to assist in the matter, which includes several petitions, including one filed in 2015, on the colony’s regularisation.
“What we prima facie find is that the concern raised in the writ petitions needs to be addressed by the ministry of housing and urban development of Govt of India, Govt of NCT of Delhi and MCD,” the court observed, posting the petitions for further hearing on April 16.
In the past few years, HC has repeatedly asked Centre to take a decision on the issue of regularisation of the colony. On Wednesday, Centre’s counsel contended that the status quo, in relation to the colony, should continue as it was an “affluent” neighbourhood and neither repairs nor demolition could be permitted there.
When one of the petitioners urged the court to allow repairs in the meantime, HC said it has to keep in mind the “larger picture” and cannot permit a party to “keep on repairing without any sanction”. The houses, the bench said, allegedly came up in derogation of the law, but since the colony was around for so long, the authorities were expected to take a decision. A policy could be framed and the regulations could be amended, or development charges could be collected from its residents if there was a will, the court added.
“Unnecessarily these litigations are going on. They are living in fear… if you want, we will put you together in a mediation centre,” it said.
Centre, in an earlier affidavit, said it took a conscious decision not to get into the regularisation of illegal colonies that were categorised as affluent colonies, such as Sainik Farms, and it was currently focusing on the redevelopment work of the 1,797 unauthorised colonies, subdivided into two classes.
In April 2022, while hearing the plea by Ramesh Dugar, convener of the area development committee at Sainik Farms, for regularisation of colonies in the area, HC said it was “high time” the issue of regularisation of Sainik Farm was “resolved once and for all”.