Judgment

Kirpal, J.-SLP(C) 13908 of 1997

Special leave granted.

1. We have heard learned counsel for the parties.

The short question which arises for consideration is whether the High Court was right in coming to the conclusion that a plot of land which had been allotted to the appellant could not have been converted to a residential plot on which construction could be made inasmuch as it was meant to be an open space.

2. The proceedings before the High Court were initiated on a writ petition being filed by the respondent as a Public Interest Litiga­tion, inter alia, contending that the respondent had purchased a plot of land on the understanding that the plot in question in the present appeal was really an open space adjoining a kinder garten school. The respondent found in 1995 that the appellant was constructing a house and thereupon a writ petition was filed in the High Court which issued notice and on 8th of March, 1995 granted stay of further construction. The High Court ultimately allowed the writ petition and came to the conclusion that inasmuch as the plot in question was earmarked as an open area adjoining a school it could not have been converted into a residential plot witho