JUDGMENT

S.B.SINHA, J

1. Interpretation of a condition of eligibility for allotment of a housing plot in the Modern Housing Complex, Manimajra under the Manimajra Housing Scheme Phase iii 1993 by the appellant herein is in question in this appeal which arises out of the judgment and order dated 25.2.2000 passed by the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in C.W.P. NO.7070/1998.

2. The fact of the matter is not in dispute. Respondent No. 1 is a retired Army Officer. He and his wife jointly became member of a Cooperative Society known as Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO for short). The said Cooperative Society was registered with the Registrar of Societies, Delhi under the Societies Registration Act being Act, XXI of 1860.

3. AWHO was allotted some land in Delhi by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

4. Respondents applied for and were allotted a dwelling unit by the appellant-Board in the said Housing Scheme. Having come to know of the purported allotment of a housing site by the AWHO in favour of the said respondents, a show cause notice was issued by the appellant-Board on 22.9.1997, directing the respondents to show cause as to why the allotment in the aforementioned Scheme shall not be cancelled and the entire amount received by the Board against the dwelling unit and/or flat is forfeited. The said show-cause notice was issued purported to be in terms of Clause 20 of the allotment letter dated 21.7.95.

5. A writ petition was filed by the respondents before the Punjab and Haryana High Court and by reason of the impugned judgment, the same had been allowed.

6. Ms. Issar, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant-Board, would submit that the High Court committed a serious error in interpreting one of the conditions of eligibility as stipulated in the Brochure insofar as it failed to take into consideration the purport and object for which allotment is made by the Housing Board at a concessional rate and/or at reserved/ fixed price.

7. It was urged that respondents being members of the AWHO had no independent existence and that being a part of the Society itself, would come within the purview of the word through Government/Semi–Government/Municipal Committee/Corporation/ Improvement Trust/Notified Area Committee and for the said purpose the contextual rule of interpretation should be applied.

8. Mr. Ganguli, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents, on the other hand, submits that the condition of eligibility must receive strict construction. It was furthermore submitted that, in any event the show cause notice having not contained any stipulation that the land was allotted to the respondents and/or the AWHO at the concessional rate, no order of cancellation could have been passed relying on or on the basis thereof.

9. Indisputably, the Chandigarh Housing Board has been constituted under the Haryana Housing Board Act, 1971, as extended to the union Territory of Chandigarh. The Union Territory of Chandigarh in exercise of its power conferred upon it by Section 74 of the said Act, made regulations known as The Chandigarh Housing Board (Allotment, Management and Sale of Tenements) Regulations, 1979. Regulation (6) of the said Regulation, with which we are concerned, reads as under:

"6. Eligibility of Allotment-(1) A dwelling unit or flat in the Housing Estate of the Board shall be allotted only to such person who or his wife/her husband or any of his/her dependent relations including unmarried children, does not own on freehold or lease hold or on hire purchase basis, a residential plot or house in the Union Territory of Chandigarh or in any of the Urban Estates of Mohali Of Panchkula. Similarly persons who have acquired a house/residential site anywhere in India through Government/Semi-government/ Municipal committee/Improvement Trust at concessional rate in their name or in the name of any/dependent member of their family Will not be eligible to apply to the Board for allotme