C.W.P. No.1959 of 1988 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No.1959 of 1988 Date of Decision:01.02.2010 Major B.S. Grewal, 61, Engineers Regiment, C/o 56 A.P.O. ....Petitioner Versus The State of Punjab through Secretary to Govt. of Punjab, Deptt. of Urban Estate and Housing Developing, Civil Secretariat,Chandigarh and others ....Respondents Present: Mr. R.S. Bains, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma, Addl. A.G., Punjab for respondent Nos.1 and 2. None for respondent No.3. CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? No 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? No -.- K. KANNAN J.(ORAL) 1. The writ petition came to filed at a time when the petitioner, who in the hope of securing an allotment of plot of a measurement of 500 square yards in the Urban Estate of Mohali, had made some initial payment of a deposit of Rs.1350/- as early as on 29.03.1973 and the petitioner had paid yet again some more amounts representing portions of the price obtained provisionally on a promise of allotment of a plot. The petitioner's contention was that seniority numbers had been assigned in the manner of applications for allotment and he found to his dismay that persons C.W.P. No.1959 of 1988 -2- below his seniority number had been granted plots after receiving the amounts by them but the petitioner had not been issued any allotment. 2. To the contention of the petitioner, the response on behalf of the State of Punjab and the Urban Development Authority is that the mere payment of some amounts in anticipation of allotment would not create any vested right and the allotments could not be made to the petitioner only because he had not paid the entire amount determined as payable for allotment of a plot within stipulated periods. At a particular time, the policy has been revised that the allotment would be done only to persons, who had offered to pay the full amounts without staggering the payments in installments. The petitioner had not paid the full amount or payment of 25% of the amount before a particular cut off date. In the written statement, it had been stated that when the cut off date was 30.09.1975, the payment had been made only on 30.10.1975 and therefore, his plea for allotment could not be fulfilled. 3. The grievance of the petitioner was that this change of policy providing for a cut off date had never been communicated and therefore, it was unjustified that the petitioner must be denied a consideration for favourable allotment of a plot. So long as it is seen that there is no specific contract between the parties offering to allot a plot, the petitioner cannot have the remedy in a writ of petition by mandamus. It is still not a situation whether the petitioner shall not merit any consideration at all. The averments C.W.P. No.1959 of 1988 -3- made in the writ petition that the petitioner had by his letter dated 18.10.1983 opted for 400 square yards of plot and in the draw of lots held in February, 1985, his name was considered for allotment but he was not successful in the draw are not disputed. The written statement recites that his application with all the application of all other defence personnel had been transferred to the Punjab Housing Develoment Board, now PUDA and that they would be considered for allotment in some particular sector of Urban Estate SAS Nagar as per the latest decision of the Government to accommodate defence personnel. It appears from the records that on a plea of the petitioner that a plot shall be reserved for him, this Hon'ble Court passed an order on 30.05.1989 that one kanal plot was to be kept reserved during the pendency of the writ petition. This interim order itself does not create any right but in view of the statement admitting that there was an application pending at his instance in the year 1983 and that his application with the applications of other defence personnel have been transferred to PUDA for consideration of a plot reserved for defence personnel in SAS Nagar, Mohali, it is directed that PUDA shall have the seniority to his application as maintained in his letter dated 18.10.1983 and consider him for allotment of a plot reserved for defence personnel in SAG Nagar as per the policy extant for allotment of plots. 4. Reserving to the petitioner such consideration in the manner referred to above, the writ petition is disposed of. The price at which the property would be offered, shall be the present C.W.P. No.1959 of 1988 -4- price and the PUDA shall give out credit to the amounts received from the petitioner and credit him also with interest @12% from the date of his payment till date of consideration of allotment. The direction to PUDA will also be taken as binding on successors in office of the institution. (K. KANNAN) JUDGE February 01, 2010 Pankaj*