Delhi High Court paves way for man to get DDA flat 45 years after he applied for it

A man who had applied for a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flat 45 years ago will finally get the possession of the same after the Delhi High Court passed an order regarding the same on Tuesday [Ishwar Chand Jain v Delhi Development Authority & Ors]..Ishwar Chand Jain had applied for a Low Income Group (LIG) flat under DDA’s New Pattern Registration Scheme (NPR scheme) on October 3, 1979.Justice Jasmeet Singh directed DDA to provide flat to Jain within four weeks at the rate that was prevalent in the year 1996, the date of the allotment of the flat.The Court said that it is the dream of majority of Delhiites to have a property in their name in the city and the DDA’s failure to provide the flat to Jain on time was mala fide, arbitrary and amounted to misconduct."The stand of the DDA is that the main file of the petitioner is not traceable in their records. Hence, the DDA is unable to say on which date the DAL [Demand cum Allotment Letter] was issued except the statement that DAL was issued at address 3 [third address provided by Jain]. DDA is an instrumentality of State and is required to act fairly and in accordance with law. The actions of the DDA as noted above are malafide and arbitrary to the petitioner who has been in legitimate hope of getting a flat. The total silence on the material particulars by the DDA clearly shows the misconduct on behalf of DDA,” the Court said..Under the NPR scheme, a person was eligible to be allotted a DDA flat if he or she did not own any residential house or plot in full or in part on leasehold or freehold basis in the name of his/her wife or husband or any of his/her minor or dependent children or dependent parents, minor sisters and brothers.A certificate of registration was issued to Jain in July 1980. After almost 17 years of the scheme, DDA held a draw of lots in March 1996 and Jain was declared successful for a flat in Rohini.It was DDA’s case that a Demand cum Allotment Letter (DAL) was issued to the petitioner at his address no. 3 but he failed to pay the demanded amount..However, the Court held that sending DAL to this address was meaningless as Jain had communicated to the authority in 1988 that his new address was now in Hisar.“The DAL sent to the petitioner on wrong address despite the right address being on record of the DDA is no demand in the eyes of law. It was incumbent upon the DDA to issue DAL to the petitioner on the new given address 4 which was the last known address on the record of the DDA,” the Court held.The Court, therefore, ordered the DDA to provide a flat equivalent to what was allotted to Jain in 1996 at the rates prevalent at that time..Advocates Praveeen Kumar Aggarwal and Abhishek Grover appeared for Jain.DDA was represented by advocate Ajay Brahme..[Read Judgment]