The Delhi High Court Friday issued notice to central and Delhi governments on a plea challenging their powers to regularise unauthorised colonies.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Shah Endlaw also issued notice, returnable by May 2, to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on the issue.
The petition, filed by H.R. Suri through advocate Anil K. Aggarwal, challenged the powers of the DDA to frame regulations for regularisation of unauthorised colonies in 2008, saying that no such provision for regularisation of unplanned and illegal massive construction was permissible under the Delhi Development Act.
Even the Delhi government was barred, under a constitutional provision relating to land development and colonisation, to frame any rules in the matter, the petition maintained.
“The elected municipal body – the MCD – was the exclusive agency, which could take over and bring out schemes for improvement of such unauthorised and unplanned colonies,” the petition said.
Furthermore, the DDA had failed in curbing unauthorised construction, and to cover up its laxity, it illegally regularised as many as 567 unauthorised colonies in 1990, the petition alleged.
