A division bench, comprising Justices Y K Sabharwal and K S Gupta said, ``It is most unfortunate that on the one hand, considering the importance of the case, the Chief Minister thought it fit to appear in person (on August 17) and on the other, the affidavit in terms of the order passed by the court is still not filed.''

The CM had, on his voluntary appearance in court on August 17, submitted that a decision on regularisataion or demolition of 1,071 ``unauthorised'' colonies in the Capital would be taken within 45 days and an affidavit on the Government stand filed within 10 days.

The court had allowed Verma's plea for construction of roads and drainage systems in these colonies, stating that the provision would not come in the way of the Government taking a decision.

``It seemsthe Government is not interested in filing the affidavit and wishes to rely upon the affidavit to be filed by the Centre,'' the bench observed, while expressing anguish over the Government taking the court direction lightly.

The court gave two more weeks to the Government to file its affidavit and posted the matter for hearing on September 17.

The court reminded the Government to enforce strictly its decision of December last, banning further construction in the city till it (the Government) took a decision on the issue of regularisation of the ``unuathorised'' colonies.

The bench further directed the Government that water and electricity connections in unauthorised colonies would be provided after they were given on ``priority'' to the colonies built by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

This direction came after DDA counsel Surinder Sethi submitted that thousands of DDA flats were not being allotted to applicants due to the lack of water and power connections.

The court also directed theGovernment to submit a report on the boundries of each ``unauthorised'' colony to ensure that no further construction took place.

Sethi told the court that 392 of the 1,071 unauthorised colonies in the Capital were raised on DDA land and the rest were either on the land owned by the State Government or the local civic bodies.

The CM, on his personal appearance, had told the court that the Government has, in principle, decided to fix December 31, 1997 as the cut-off-date for regularisation of the colonies.