Dr. S. Muralidhar, J. (Open Court)-The challenge in these writ petitions are to demands raised by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) against the petitioners for a recovery of certain sums of money as arrears of land revenue under Section 68 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 (PLRA). The principal ground of such challenge is that since the work contracts entered into by the DDA with the petitioners, out of which these demands arise, does not contain any clause that permits the DDA to recover such amounts. It is contended that in any event the DDA cannot invoke the provisions of PLRA to recover such amounts.

2. The facts in both writ petitions are more or less similar. For convenience, the facts of the first petition, Writ Petition (C) No. 5073 of 2003 are discussed in some detail. By a contract dated 28.2.1989 entered into with the DDA, the petitioner was awarded the work of "Development of Local Shopping Centre at Madangir." The work commenced on 10.3.1989 and was to be completed within four months. For various reasons, which need not be gone into in these proceedings, the work could not be completed within the stipulated period. It was rescinded on 9.3.1990. The dispu