Non-payment of lease salami within stipulated time does not automatically cancel allotment; requires active governmental cancellation, establishing a directory interpretation of time limits.

JUDGMENT :

SABYASACHI BHATTACHARYYA, J.

1. The present appeal arises at the behest of the writ petitioners, against the dismissal of their writ petition by the learned Single Judge.

2. The matter pertains to a plot of land in Bidhannagar, also known as Salt Lake, in the north-eastern fringes of the city of Kolkata.

3. The case, in a nutshell, is that the predecessor-in-interest of the present appellants, namely, one Bhagabat Chandra Chowdhury, was given a letter of offer of allotment by the Government of West Bengal through the then Irrigation and Waterways Department, under the pen of the Deputy Secretary, Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal, and by order of the Hon’ble Governor of the State of West Bengal, on September 28, 1967.

4. As per the clauses of the said agreement, the plot-in-question was put up for lease for a period of 999 years on payment of a premium or salami charged at the rate as stipulated therein, out of which 50% was to be deposited as earnest money with the Reserve Bank of India, Calcutta by a challan in TR Form No.7 and the receipted challan along with the formal application in duplicate were to be submitted to the Government as per the modalities prescribed therein.

5. The remaining 50% of the premium or salami, as per Clause (d) of the said offer letter, was payable within two months from the date of receipt of the information that the land is ready for delivery of possession.

6. The subsequent Clauses, in particular Clause (f), of the said allotment letter made it abundantly clear that on failure to make payment of the instalment referred to in Clause (d) within the prescribed period “the earnest money mentioned in Clause (b) will be liable to be forfeited and the allotment order cancelled and the Government will be at liberty to offer the plot to another party” (emphasis supplied).

7. Conspicuously, in Clause (j) of the letter of offer of allotment, it was stipulated that physical possession of the plot would not be handed over before the premium or salami has been paid in full. Clause (n) thereof provided that after full payment of all the dues, the applicant would get the lease drawn up, executed and registered.

8. The petitioners/appellants’ case is that due to the demise of the original allottee, that is, Bhagabat Chandra Chowdhury, within the stipulated period for payment of the balance salami, his son, Rajib Lochan, was not in a position to pay the balance salami. However, Rajib Lochan (since deceased) approached the respondent authorities after about forty-five years, in the year 2015, whereas Bhagabat had died in the year 1970, for the purpose of depositing the balance salami and seeking regularization of the lease to be granted in favour of the said Bhagabat.

9. Upon such approach being made and an application being made for mutation of the property in the name of Rajib Lochan, the respondent authorities gave a hearing to Rajib Lochan, asking Rajib Lochan to bring the relevant documents in respect of the property.

10. In a communication issued by the authorities, it was indicated that the application for issuance of mutation order of Rajib Lochan in respect of the concerned plot was being processed and that hearing would be given in the chamber of the Competent Authority, Urban Development Department (UDD), Government of West Bengal on September 2, 2016.

11. By a subsequent letter from the Land Manager, Bidhannagar dated June 14, 2017, the said authority requested Rajib Lochan further to submit original documents pertaining to the plot “for further processing and the possessi