No license without land ownership verification: DTCP
Gurgaon- In order to curb procedural irregularities prevailing in the process of issuing license to developers, the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), has asked its officials to obtain land ownership certificates only through official channels.
DTCP’s director general has recently issued the order after a legal case being heard in Punjab and Haryana High Court. The case was lodged against a builder for illegally manipulating the land ownership records for a commercial housing project in Sector 65. A builder had obtained license for ownership of land measuring 5.025 acre out of 7.15 acre applied for licence.
The builder was issued licence in 2007 and in the application for licence, Gurgaon Tehsildar had mentioned that the builders/companies are owners and in possession of the land. But in fact, the land was actually in the name of some other companies.
The DTCP had granted licence without checking the records properly. Furthermore, the authority renewed it till January 30, 2014. The land issue came into light only when the actual owner approached the court. The matter has been considered seriously by the court.
Following this incident, the DTCP ordered that the ownership certificate from District Revenue Officer should be obtained through official channel while processing licence application.
The double bench of the court had observed: Readings of the DTCP notings indicate that there were large number of discrepancies and therefore, show-cause notice was issued for cancellation of the licence, to which reply was filed and proceedings were dropped by the DTCP.
DTCP had also sought second legal opinion, and it was given in favour of the licensee as there’s no violation of terms and conditions in the process of Grant of License. But however, it was identified that even the licence was not granted as per the provisions of the Act.
The court stated in the order that this petition could not be dismissed simply on the ground that the petitioners have no locus standi to challenge the licence granted to the builders. The court said that the government officials were indulged in giving ownership certificates to builders, showing that they are the owners, is in violation of the provisions of law established on record.
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commercial housing project, Department of Town and Country Planning, District Revenue Officer, DTCP’s director general, Gurgaon, Gurgaon Tehsildar, housing project, land ownership, land ownership certificates, land ownership records, licence application, possession of land
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[...] No license without land ownership verification: DTCP [...]