( 1 ) THE petitioner purchased land bearing plot Nos. G-45 and G-46 forming part of khasra Nos. 629, 802, 803, 839 and 840 situated in village Tihar and forming part of regularised layout plan of Hari Nagar Extension in pursuance to a sale deed dated 19th August 1955. It is stated in the petition that respondent No. 1/mcd wrongly took possession of the aforesaid property some time in the year 1962 and started running the school thereon. The petitioner filed a suit bearing No. 129/69 for possession and damages before the court of Sub-Judge which suit was decreed on 22nd May 1975. The trial court took note of the stand of the respondent/corporation that in the regularised plan of the colony, the disputed land had been shown as earmarked for community centre but it had not been stated that the plots in question had been acquired by the Government and thus, remained the property of the petitioner herein. The said decree was challenged by the respondent/corporation in an appeal before the learned Additional District Judge who set aside the said decree vide order dated 22nd May 1975, holding that the statutory notice had not been served on the respondent/corporation though the finding of the Sub-Judge on the point of ownership was confirmed. The petitioner preferred a second appeal and in terms of the order dated 5th April 1995, the order of the learned Additional District judge was set aside and the order passed by the learned Sub-Judge was confirmed.

( 2 ) THE effect of the aforesaid proceeding was that the respondent / Corporation was held to have unauthorisedly occupied the land of the petitioner.

( 3 ) THE petitioner applied for the sanction of the plans on 23rd September 1999 for construction of a residential dwelling unit but the said sanction was refused vide order dated 29th March 2000 on the ground that the plot site fell in a primary school site as per the regularised layout plan.

( 4 ) THE petitioner stated that the aforesaid statement was false and the earlier plea of the respondent/corporation was that the land had been earmarked for a community centre. It is further stated that the plan shows the plots as earmarked for residential use and that the only reasons on which plan can be refused are specified in sub-section (2) of Section 336 and Section 340 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as "the said Act" for short ). The petitioner filed the writ petition seeking quashing of the letter dated 29th March 2000 and for a writ of mandamus to sanction the building plans submitted by the petitioner vide the application dated 23rd September 1999.

( 5 ) ON 16th November 2000, a statement was made by the Town Planner that the application of the petitioner dated 31st August 1999 shall be processed within four weeks. In the affidavit filed on behalf of respondent/corporation dated 5th February 2001, it has been stated that in pursuance to the said order, the matter was placed before the Layout Screening Committee and a decision was taken to acquire the entire land meant for the school including the plots in question. The proposal for incorporation of the plots in the layout plan of Hari Nagar was stated to be before the Standing Committee. The decision taken vide item No. 120/2000 by the Layout Screening Committee dated 5th December 2000 is as under:

"the case was discussed. The Chief Town Planner, representatives from the Law Deptt. and the Education Deptt. of MCD were present during the meeting. The matter was discussed at length and it was stressed by the Education Deptt. that the entire piece of land earmarked for the Primary School in the approved regularisation plan of Hari Nagar, G-Block is required for the proper and effective functioning of the school. The school has been running there since 1959 in sub standard plot of an area of about 800 sq. mtres. restricting the movement of students and proper expansion of the school. The MPD-2001 recommends an area of 4000 sq. mtrs