Case: Fulj1T Kaur Vs. State Of Punjab

1. This is a unique case which reveals that an influential person can have allotment of a residential plot in discretionary quota within 48 hours of submission of application and then assert in Court that she has a right to have a land on a throwaway price and not to deposit the sale price for quarter of a century.This appeal has been preferred against a Judgment and Order dated 21.12.1999 in Writ Petition No. 4763 of 1992 of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh, dismissing the petition against the Demand Notice of additional price for residential plot.Facts and circumstances giving rise to this case are that the appellant made an application on 23.02.1987 for allotment of a residential plot in Urban Estates, SAS Nagar, Punjab. The Administration, vide letter dated 25.02.1987, issued the allotment letter in favour of the appellant in respect of plot No.702, measuring 400 sq. yards in Sector 70 Urban Estate SAS Nagar, making it clear that as the proper calculation could not be made and tentative price had not been determined, the allottee has to deposit provisional price of Rs. 93000/- in four installments upto 15.10.1989. Subsequently, vide letter dated 25.03.1992, additional demand of Rs. 2,19,000/- was made, however, instead of depositing the said amount, appellant challenged the said Demand Notice by filing Writ Petition No. 4763 of 1992 before the High Court of Punjab & Haryana contending that the additional demand was arbitrary and unreasonable. A large number of similar cases were also pending before the High Court and some had earlier been disposed of. However, the Writ Petition filed by the appellant has been dismissed by the High Court vide impugned Judgment and Order dated 21.12.1999 upholding the demand dated 25.03.1992. Hence this appeal.

Reasoning: 8. There is no dispute to the settled proposition of law that dismissal of the Special Leave Petition in limine by this Court does not mean that the reasoning of the judgment of the High Court against which the Special Leave Petition has been filed before this Court stands affirmed or the judgment and order impugned merges with such order of this Court on dismissal of the petition. It simply means that this Court did not consider the case worth examining for the reason, which may be other than merit of the case. Nor such an order of this Court operates as res judicata. An order rejecting the Special Leave Petition at the threshold without detailed reasons therefore does not constitute any declaration of law or a binding precedent.In view of the above, the submissions made by Shri Hansaria, Amicus Curiae in this regard are preposterous and not worth consideration.A perusal of the above quoted rules shows that the "tentative price" means the price determined by the State Government from time to time in respect of a sale of site by allotment and while doing so, the Government has to take into consideration various factors including the amount paid asHowever, there is nothing in the scheme of the Act 1964 and the rules from which it can be inferred that tentative price is synonymous with the provisional price, and that a person, to whom the plot has been allotted on provisional price, cannot be asked to pay the tentative price determined by the government. There is a difference between the "provisional price" and the "tentative price" and it may take a long time for the State to determine the tentative price.In the instant case, the calculations had been furnished by the respondents as on what basis tentative price had been determined.There is nothing on record to show that the tentative price determined by the State could be unreasonable or arbitrary and it is not the case of the allottee that the market value of the land has not been enhanced while deciding the reference under the ActIt is seen that in the notice dated 9-8-1990, the total area, net area, the payable amount for the gross acreage, the acreage left for the developmental purpose, balance recoverable from the plot-holders, plot-table area have been given for each of the areas and recovery rate also has been mentioned under the said notice. Under these circumstances, there is no ambiguity left in the calculations. If, at all, the appellants had got any doubt, they would have approached the authority and sought for further information. It is not the case that they had sought the information and the same was withheld. Under these circumstances, we do not find any illegality in the action taken by the respondents. The High Court, therefore, was right in refusing to interfere with the order.The instant case is squarely covered by the aforesaid Judgments of this Court and particularly, Preeta Singh (supra) and in view thereof, the appeal is liable to be dismissed.Before parting with the case, it may be pertinent to mention here that the allotment had been made to the appellant within 48 hours of submission of her application though in ordinary cases, it takes about a year. Appellant had further been favoured to pay the aforesaid provisional price of Rs. 93,000/- in four installments in two years, as is evident from the letter dated 8.4.1987. Making the allotment in such a hasty manner itself is arbitrary and unreasonable and is hit by Article 14 of the Constitution. This Court has consistently held that "when a thing is done in a post-haste manner, malafide would be presumed." Anything done in undue haste can also be termed as "arbitrary and cannot be condoned in law."Thus, such an allotment in favour of the appellant is liable to be declared to have been made in arbitrary and unreasonable manner. However, we are not inclined to take such drastic steps as the appellant has developed the land subsequent to allotment.We further find no force in submission made by Sh. Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Advocate, that in spite of making recalculation in view of the directions issued by the High Court in the case of D.S. Laungia (supra), State could not make any recovery from Sh. Laungia. This Court, vide order dated 20.05.2010, asked the respondents to explain this aspect and file an affidavit of the Administrator of the Authority. In response thereto, an Affidavit had been filed by the Chief Administrator, Greater Mohali Development Authority, explaining the entire position in respect of the allotment and recovery of dues furnishing all details and according to this Affidavit, the money is being recovered from all defaulters including Shri D.S. Laungia along with interest.