In a meeting held at Raj Niwas on Wednesday, the Delhi Development Authority finally regularised the sale of land by Escorts Ltd to Fortis in 2005.

The land had been allotted by the DDA in 1982 to Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, a charitable trust at the time. “The allotment was done under the Authority’s policy of selling land to charitable institutes at one-fourth the market price to run hospitals. The institutes had to provide free health care to 25 per cent of the patients from the economically weaker section,” a DDA official said.

Escorts, however, violated the lease norms when it converted from a charitable institute to a corporate entity and then sold off the land at a profit to Fortis.

“We had the option of cancelling the lease to reclaim the land and auction it. The DDA has since then changed its policy and now auctions institutional land,” the official added.

The authority has now decided to regularise the sale by claiming 50 per cent of the cost at which the land was sold. “Escorts will pay the DDA half of the Rs 585 crore it got from the sale,” the official said. DDA officials point out that the regularisation is an exception rather than a norm.

The issue had been reviewed by both the Ministry of Urban Development and the Law Ministry.