PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT
Jawahar Lal Gupta and K.S.Garewal JJ.
D.L.F.Qutab Enclave Complex Educational Charitable Trust
Versus
State Of Haryana
Civil Writ Petition No. 7245 of 1997,
Decided On : JULY 7, 2001
DLF Qutab Enclave Complex Educational Charitable Trust (Petitioner) filed a writ petition challenging the refusal of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 (Act) and the Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana (Respondents) to recognize the fourth party interests created in the community sites of the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex. The Court held that the Petitioner was not an independent entity but a duplicate of the licensee company created to fiddle with figures and avoid depositing excess profits with the State Government. The Act and Rules did not permit the licensee to transfer sites without permission, and the impugned circulars were not arbitrary or illegal. The Court dismissed the petition.
Fact of the Case:
The Petitioner, DLF Qutab Enclave Complex Educational Charitable Trust, challenged the refusal of the Respondents, Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 and the Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana, to recognize the fourth party interests created in the community sites of the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex. The Petitioner claimed that it was an independent entity working to promote education and that the provisions of the Act and Rules permitted the licensee to transfer the sites without permission.
Finding of the Court:
The Court found that the Petitioner was not an independent entity but a duplicate of the licensee company created to fiddle with figures and avoid depositing excess profits with the State Government. The Court also found that the Act and Rules did not permit the licensee to transfer sites without permission and that the impugned circulars were not arbitrary or illegal.
Issues: 1. Whether the Petitioner was an independent entity or a duplicate of the licensee company? 2. Whether the Act and Rules permitted the licensee to transfer sites without permission? 3. Whether the impugned circulars were arbitrary or illegal?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The Court held that the Petitioner was not an independent entity but a duplicate of the licensee company created to fiddle with figures and avoid depositing excess profits with the State Government. This was based on the facts that the Petitioner was managed by the same Directors as the licensee company, that the transfer of sites to the Petitioner was for a nominal sum of Re. 1 per annum, and that the Petitioner had leased out the sites to fourth parties at exorbitant premiums. 2. The Court held that the Act and Rules did not permit the licensee to transfer sites without permission. This was based on the provisions of Section 3(3)(a)(iv) of the Act, which required the licensee to construct the buildings for community services at its own cost and did not permit the transfer of land to any other person. 3. The Court held that the impugned circulars were not arbitrary or illegal. This was based on the fact that the circulars were issued in accordance with the provisions of the Act and Rules and were necessary to prevent the licensee from transferring the sites without permission.
Final Decision: The Court dismissed the petition.
JAWHAR LAL GUPTA, J.
1. Pure charity or consuming avarise? Is the petitioner truly a Trust working to promote the cause of education? Or is it merely a duplicate of the respondent colonizer created to fiddle with the figures and collect funds? Do the provisions of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 and the Rules permit the licensee to transfer the sites without the permission of the Government? And are the restrictions imposed by the authorities through various circulars arbitrary, illegal and unfair? This is the core of the whole controversy.
2. The "DLF Qutab Enclave Complex Educational Charitable Trust" is the petitioner. M/s. DLF Universal Limited - a Public Limited Company (respondent No. 3) is the licensee under the provisions of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The petitioner-Trust is the progeny of the respondent-licensee. It alleges that the State Government and the Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana have arbitrarily refused to recognise "the fourth party interests created in the community sites of the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex. . . . . . by means of Agreement to Lease after 7-8-1991 but before 9-2-1994 and in sanctioning their building plans". As a result, the process of development of the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex in so far as it relates to the construction of the community buildings like schools, Hospitals, dispensaries etc. has been stalled.
3. Respondent No. 3 was granted several licences for the development of a residential colony in Villages Chakkarpur, Sikandarpur Ghosi, Shahpur, Sarhul and Nathupur etc. in District Gurgaon. It was named as the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex. The third respondent has entered into an agreement with the second respondent viz. the Director, Town and Country Planning in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the rules. It has executed an agreement in the prescribed pro forma - LC IV. A copy of this agreement has been produced as Annexure P.2 with the writ petition.
4. On February 3, 1998, the licensee viz. respondent No. 3 executed a deed by which the petitioner-Trust was created. All the community building sites earmarked for the construction of schools in the DLF Qutab Enclave Complex were transferred to the Trust for a paltry sum of Re. One per annum so as to enable it to provide "educational facilities through the construction of buildings and running and maintaining schools ......... in the said colony". A copy of this deed has been produced as Annexure P.3 with the writ petition. In Clause (3) of this deed, it was inter alia provided that "the Trustees may construct the buildings required for the provision of educational facilities themselves and run the schools or have it done through other persons, Trusts, societies or institutions by giving the plots or any one or more of them or bulidngs constructed thereon on lease or by outright transfer or in any other manner and on such terms and conditions as they may consider appropriate". It was also provided that "the income of the Trust from whatever source derived shall be applied or accumulated for future applications solely for the purpose of promoting education and its assets shall also be held with the same object."
5. The petitioner in turn "entered into various agreements to lease on perpetual basis with forth parties for the development and construction of the buildings meant for the educational purposes." A copy of one of such agreements has been produced as Annexure P.4. The list of plots in respect of which such agreements were executed is at Annexure P.5 with the writ petition. The petitioner alleges that the fourth parties "were selected after a close scrutiny of their past experience, financial capabilities, past antecedents etc. so as to ensure that these persons do not default in the construction of the community buildings or act contrary to the licence issued to respondent No. 3 herein". Under th
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