IMPORTANT POINT
In eyes of law, nobody is senior or junior, low or high, rich or poor, senior rank or junior rank, but all are to be treated equally.

J.M.Malik, Presiding Member—The object of Army Welfare Housing Organisation (in short, ‘AWHO’), the petitioner/OP is to provide dwelling units to the serving and retired army personnel as well as to their widows, all over India, on ‘No Profit, No Loss’ basis. Sh. Raj Kumar Dhingra, the complainant applied for an Economy Apartment in the Annual Registration Scheme and after the draw of lots, held on 09.07.2004, the complainant was allotted Seniority No.723 against 343 dwelling units in the Economy type apartments in a Group Housing Project at Sector 20, Panchkula, Haryana. An option to change over to a Group Housing Scheme proposed at Sector 27, Panchkula, Haryana, was given to all the wait-listed registrants, including the complainant, but the complainant declined the same. Thereafter, the wait-list for the Group Housing Project at Sector-20, Panchkula, Haryana, was updated. The complainant was placed at wait-list No.1 for the Economy type apartment and till the completion of the project continued to be at wait list No.1, as no confirmed allottee opted out of the said scheme. The complainant was apprised of this fact vide letter dated 15.12.2008. Thereafter, he raised objection vide letter dated 23.07.2009 alleging that the allotment of the dwelling units to three widows, namely, Mrs.Puspha Bhagi, Mrs. Shivani Vats and Mrs. Sudha Nayyar, in ‘widows quota’ was contrary to and in violation of the terms of the allotment. The relevant portion of his letter dated 23.07.2009, is reproduced here, as under :-

“Mrs. Pushpa Bhagat, Mrs. Shivani Vats and Mrs.Sudha Nayyar have been allotted against widow quota. Allocation rule 58 (b) (ii) says that for being considered against the reserved against the reserved quota, a widow must apply within two years of the demise of her husband. Their registration numbers confirm that all the three widows have made registration in between somewhere in Jun-July, 2004. Their names did never appear in the waiting list of EA type of DU of Sector-20, Panchkula, whereas in other categories of DUs the names of widows were very much there”.

2. The complainant also picked up a conflict with the alleged unfair placement and allotment to one Brig. S. Sisodia and few other officers.

3. The complainant had filed a complaint against the OP with the following prayers :-

“13. That the complainant is resident of Panchkula and the property in question is also at Panchkula, hence this Hon’ble Forum has the territorial jurisdiction to decide and try the present complaint. It is therefore, respectfully prayed that the AWHO authorities may kindly be directed to allot me a house of EA type of DU which is my rightful claim and provide me justice”.

4. The OPs contested this case. They denied that there was any deficiency on their part. They contended that the rules and regulations were strictly adhered to.

5. The District Forum, vide order dated 14.06.2010, observed as under :-

“i) to allot the flat/Economy apartment to the complainant within a period of 6 months in Sandeep Vihar, Sec-20, or Sect-27, Panchkula, failing which, the complainant will be allotted an apartment in their housing project in Sec-114 (Mohali) as per his registration at the same price as well as on the same terms and conditions as detailed in (Ex.C-I).

ii) It is also made clear that complainant will retain his lien as per his present waitlist seniority on any vacancy that may arise in Sandeep Vihar, Sec-20 or Sec-27, Panchkula. Also, that in case the complainant exercises his right in case of vancancy in Sec-20/27, he will have to give up flat allotted to him Sec-114, Mohali.

iii) to pay Rs.2,000/- as compensation for harassment suffered by the complainant”.

6. Aggrieved by that order, the OP preferred an appeal before the State Commission. The State Commission dismissed the appeal on 06.12.2011, however, made the following observations in para No.13 of its judgment :-

“13. Though the organization was created for the welfare of serving / retired defence