NATIONAL
CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION
(From the
order dated 7.12.99 in First Appeal
No.1879/99
State
Commission Haryana)
Dr.(Mrs.) Arun
Prabha Jain
Petitioner
Vs.
The Administrator,
Haryana Urban
DevelopmentAuthority
Respondent
BEFORE:
HONBLE
MR. JUSTICE D.P. WADHWA,
PRESIDENT
MRS.
RAJYALAKSHMI RAO, MEMBER.
MR.
B.K. TAIMNI, MEMBER,
HONBLE
MR. JUSTICE K.S. GUPTA, MEMBER.
Housing advertisement of plot for nursing home, no condition that
applicant should be a registered society, record of HUDA examined - no
indication of any policy of allotment of plot to registered society complaint
of the individual doctor upheld direction to allot plot on the prevailing
price in 1994 without charging interest on account of escalation in the
meanwhile.
For the
respondents : : Mr.
Ajay Pal Singh and
Mr. Mahabir Singh, Advocates
O R D E R
DATED THE 25th
April, 2003.
JUSTICE D.P. WADHWA, J.(PRESIDENT)
It
is the complainant, a practicing
medical practitioner, who is before us in this revision petition. She is aggrieved by the order dated 7.12.99 of the State Commission dismissing
her appeal which in turn upheld the
order of the District Forum dated
10.11.99 dismissing the complaint.
Complainant had applied
for allotment of a plot of land measuring 0.82 acres in Sector 21B, Faridabad
or any other suitable alternative site for construction a hospital. Her application to the Haryana Urban
Development Authority (HUDA) - opposite parties was not entertained on the ground that the policy for
allotment of plot for construction of nursing home/hospital did not permit
the allotment of the site in
the name of an individual person and
that only a society registered under the Societies Registration Act could apply for the allotment of a site. Complainant had challenged the stand of
the HUDA in the District Forum but
she failed and she also failed in her appeal before the State Commission.
In
pursuance to advertisement put in the
daily Tribune on 17.1.90
complainant on 16.2.90 applied for allotment of land for construction of 100 beds
hospital. She also paid earnest money of Rs.2500/- as was required
in terms of the advertisement. This
advertisement is reproduced in full:
HARYANA URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
Haryana Urban Development Authority Faridabad
invites applications for allotment of land for Private Nursing Homes in various
sectors at Faridabad for following
categories:
i) Up
to 10 beds (ii) Up to 20 beds (iii) up to 50 beds (iv) Up to 100 beds (v) above 120 beds.
Application
with complete bio-data alongwith a bank draft for Rs.2500/- in favour of Estate
Officer, HUDA, Faridabad should reach Administrator, HUDA, Fbd. within a
month. For more details please contact
on any working day.
Proforma for
applications:
1.
Name of the applicant.
2.
Qualifications: Attested copies of
certificates & testimonials be attached.
3.
Certificate of registration by the competent
authority.
4.
Experience in the profession.
5.
Number of members of the society and copy of
registration of the society.
6.
Financial position (Certificate from a
scheduled bank).
7.
Requirement of land along with utilisation plan and Sector preferred for allotment of land.
8.
Recommendation of Deputy Commissioner/Chief
Medical Officer (Genuineness Certificate).
Phone:-26917, 25497. Administrator
HUDA,
Sector-16,
Faridabad.
Administrator, HUDA asked for certain documents by letter 15.10.90 which the complainant supplied.
Again, the Administrator asked for some further details which also were supplied. Since there was no response for allotment of
site to the complainant she had been writing letters to the authorities. She was called for discussion by the Administrator, HUDA on 20.1.94.
Her case for allotment of land
measuring 0.82 acres in Sector 21B
was recommended on 5.5.1994 by the
Administrator HUDA, Faridabad to Chief Administrator HUDA,
Chandigarh. Administrator also
requested that rate of cost of land
and terms and conditions may kindly be
got fixed and conveyed at the
earliest. The project was also
recommended by the Health Services
Department. However, by letter dated
7.6.95 Administrator informed the complainant that site measuring 0.82 acre was found to be insufficient
to construct 100 beds hospital and asked the complainant to re-examine her
request according to the prescribed
norms. The complainant on that submitted amended land utilisation plans and scaled down construction of hospital to 40 beds. This
was by her letter dated 4.7.95. Complainant did not hear anything in the
matter thereafter and was shocked when
she received letter dated 1.1.97 from the Estate Officer, HUDA,
Faridabad sending her a cheque of
Rs.2500/- without any explanation or information. The Estate Officer sought to refund the earnest money received
from the complainant in 1990. Naturally
the complainant protested and she wrote letters and reminders and she returned the cheque sent by the Estate
Officer. It is not necessary to refer
to other correspondence except to note that the complainant received a letter dated 11.11.97 from the
Administrator, HUDA Faridabad declining
her request for allotment of site.
This letter reads as under:
Sub:-
Allotment of land for 100 Bed Nursing
Home/Hospital
Please
refer to your letter dated 27.5.97 on the subject noted above.
As per direction conveyed by the Head Qtrr.
vide his letter dated 3.9.97 that the policy on the subject in force does not
permit individual application to be entertained. Therefore, as per existing policy you are requested to apply as
and when the advertisement to the effect is released in the News Paper by the
HUDA. A Cheque of Rs.2500/- as earnest money deposited by you is
enclosed.
DA/cheque
No.070633 dt. 11.11.97
Sd/-
Administrator, HUDA, Faridabad.
When
the complainant asked for the policy it was not supplied to her. Alleging deficiency in service she filed a
complaint on 11.8.98 before the
District Forum, Faridabad. On notice
being issued, opposite parties filed
their written version through
Mr. C.R. Yadav, HCS, who was
working as Estate Officer, HUDA, Faridabad.
At the outset it was denied that there was any advertisement published
earlier to March 1991. It was,
therefore, submitted that the complainant had never applied against any such
advertisement. It was then submitted
that the complainant applied for allotment of the beds hospital sites
individually and as per the existing policy, individual application is
not entertainable. On this premise it
was stated that the amount of earnest money was refunded to the
complainant. This in all is the defence
of the HUDA-opposite parties-respondents.
Complainant
had also alleged that she filed appeal
against the order of the Administrator not entertaining her application, to the
Chief Administrator, HUDA and reply to this was given by the Administrator on 12.6.98. It was:
Sub:-
Allotment of land for upto 100 bed Nursing Home.
Ref:- your application dated 27.4.98 on the
above subject.
Your application cannot be considered as Appeal.
You are requested to apply as and when the advertisement to the effect
is released in the Newspaper by the HUDA.
It
is certainly a novel method
of deciding the appeal devised
by the opposite parties! A
brochure offering sites for nursing home/clinics has also been brought on record. It gives the terms and conditions for
allotment of sites and also eligibility conditions. An application for allotment
has to be accompanied
with earnest money of Rs. 2500/-. Price of the site is to be charged as may be
fixed by HUDA and the same will be announced at the time of interview of the
applicants. There are certain other
conditions which are not quite relevant
except that we note the eligibility conditions which are as under:
ELIGIBILITY
1.
Only those who can construct/run the Nursing
Homes/Clinic within the stipulated
period of 2 years from the date of
offer of possession may apply for allotment of sites.
2.
Applicants who have already applied for
allotment of Nursing Home/Clinic sites to HUDA may not deposit t the earnest money again for applying for the site in the same Urban
Estate.
3.
Doctors in active service can be considered
for allotment of the sites provided they are willing to resign.
4.
Doctors already running Nursing
Homes/Clinics in the rented buildings
will be given preference provided they do not have any site/building for the
purpose in the Estate.
5.
Each application will be for one category of
plot in one sector in any urban
estate. If an applicant wishes to apply
for more than one category or
sector or urban estate, separate
applications alongwith the required earnest money will have to be
sent. No priorities may be indicated
as they will not be considered.
If we examine the
advertisement set out above, it nowhere says that allotment of site can be
given only to registered society.
Eligibility conditions also do not spell out any such condition. Advertisement is admittedly dated 17.1.90 and it really surprises us that the
Estate Officer should have given affidavit that no advertisement was
published earlier to March, 1991. We
wished that the affidavit should have been filed with some responsibility
on the basis of the record.
In
order to satisfy ourselves whether there was any policy arrived at by HUDA
that allotment of site could only be made to a
registered society , we called
for the records of HUDA.
Original file has been placed before us. We examined the
same. There is no indication of
any such policy. Nor any such policy has
been pointed out to us by the
respondents from the records - a stand of sheer helplessness taken by the
respondents. It is, therefore, apparent
that the whole defence set up by the HUDA is against the record. We have not been able to comprehend as to why HUDA took such a defence
which is palpably against the record maintained by it. At the same time it is also unfortunate that the District
Forum should have dismissed the
complaint on the two pleas of the HUDA
which were not true. The order of the
State Commission is worse. It gives no reasons and states that
complaint was rightly dismissed by the District Forum in view the discussions made in paras 6 and 7 of
the impugned order. State Commission
has failed to exercise jurisdiction
vested by law in it which has resulted in grave miscarriage of
justice.
When
this matter came up before us on 1.4.2002 we passed the following order on the
application of the complainant seeking interim relief:
Mr. Ajay
Pal, counsel for the Respondent, will take instructions if the plot
measuring 0.82 acres in Sector 21-B, Faridabad, for which the Petitioner
applied for allotment, is vacant or not and if not whom it has been allotted
and since when. Meanwhile, if the plot
is available, for which the Petitioner has applied in Sector 21-B, Faridabad,
the same shall not be allotted to any person till further orders. Let the matter be listed again on 2nd
August, 2002.
In
reply to this an affidavit has been filed by the Estate Officer, HUDA in which
it is submitted that the plot in question has not so far been allotted to any person but with a view to avoid illegal
encroachment being made thereon,
boundary will has been raised by HUDA.
We,
therefore, allow this revision petition, set aside the orders of the State
Commission and the District Forum
and direct HUDA to allot plot measuring 0.82 acres in Sector
21-B, Faridabad, to the complainant on the basis of the price prevailing in
1994. To balance the equities
complainant will not pay any interest
on the amount so fixed by HUDA as
construction cost has escalated
manifold. The allotment shall be made
within two months of receipt of this order by HUDA and necessary
formalities for transfer of the land be completed immediately thereafter. A great deal of inconvenience,
harassment and expense has been
caused to the complainant because of
the stand taken by the respondents
which had no legs to stand and was palpably contrary to the record
maintained by them in their official discharge of their duties. This petition is thus allowed with cost which we assess at Rs.20,000/-.
Sd/-
J
(D.P. WADHWA)
PRESIDENT
Sd/-
(RAJYALAKSHMI
RAO)
MEMBER
Sd/-
.
(B.K. TAIMNI)
MEMBER
Sd/-
J
(K.S.GUPTA )
MEMBER