The power of the Chairman of the Board to allot flats is limited to supervising the allotment of property to the eligible persons, which is mandatorily required to be made by draw of lots. The Board cannot authorise the Chairman to alter the result of the draw of lots and allot flats to any person on medical grounds.

M.M.PUNCHHI, J.

1. These are two Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 3757 and 6696 of 1989 which are being disposed of by a common order. The facts stated in these petitions are almost identical but the questions of law arising therein are indeed identical. This is the reason for writing a common order. D.S. Ahluwalia hereafter referred to as Ahluwalia ), the writ petitioner in the first case and S.P. Karwal (hereafter referred to as Karwal ), the writ petitioner in the second case, are both retired government servants. So are respondents Nos. 2 to 7 in the first petition; also impleaded as respondents Nos. 3 to 8 in the second petition. There are others involved too, who stay in the background. The contesting parties thus can appropriately be called people in the evening of their lives, and being people above 50 or 55 years of age have presumably and naturally some impairment or the other with regard to their body limbs or organs needing attention, care and careful handling for the remaining span of their lives.

2. The Chandigarh Housing Board, the common respondent No. 1 in both petitions, floated a scheme for the construction and allotment of high income group (H.I.G.) flats for retired/retiring employees of the States of Punjab and Haryana and for the Central Government and Union Territory of Chandigarh in Sector 43-B, Chandigarh. Applications were invited for registration of applicants for the allotment of those H.I.G. flats on partial self-financing basis. Both the petitioners and the private respondents submitted applications and after completing formalities and making payments became entitled to have flats.

3. Now the scheme undertaken by the Housing Board provided for construction of 96 dwelling units divided as 32 flats on the ground floor, 32 flats on the first floor and 32 flats on the second floor. Since the flats on the ground floor were likely to be more convenient and extending more amenities having provision for a car park, besides front and back courtyards, its price was slightly higher. The flats had to be allotted to the persons concerned under the Regulations promulgated by the Chandigarh Administration on December 29, 1979, in exercise of the powers conferred by S.74 of the Haryana Housing Board Act, 1971 , as extended to the Union Territory of Chandigarh, and with the previous sanction of the Administrator. In Chapter III are the Regulations which provide the procedure for disposal of property which deserves pointed attention at this stage so far as they are relevant for our purpose.

4. All applications by prospective allottees are serially entered in a register and are to be acknowledged to the applicants (Regulations 18, 19 and 20). Incomplete and invalid applications can be rejected (Regulation 21). Regulation 22 prescribes that the Chandigarh Housing Board shall for the purposes of allotment of property under the regulations constitute a committee to be called the Property Allotment Committee consisting of not more than five members of whom one shall be appointed as a Chairman. The applications are scrutinised by the Committee to determine which of the applicants are eligible for allotment. The decision of the Committee is final if not appealed against to the Board under regulation 23. Regulation 24 prescribes that the allotment of property to eligible persons shall be made by draw of lots under the supervision of the Committee or in such other manner as may be determined by the Board. Under Regulation 25 reservation of certain percentage of flats in favour of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Defence/ Ex-Defence Personnel and Pensioners of Defence Forces, Backward. Classes, certain government employees and blind and physically handicapped persons, has been made. But this Regulation has been made flexible under the proviso that if sufficient applications are not forthcoming from any of the reserved categories, the balance of the reserved dwelling flats shall be allotted to the applicants of the genera