Upset over DDA inaction,SC calls it ‘Delhi Destruction Authority’

“What are you doing? You are collecting user charges from the unauthorised occupants. It is simply mind-boggling…. The DDA has become a Delhi Destruction Authority,” the bench said.

The bench,looking into a bunch of petitions for de-sealing premises,asked the DDA to give a proper explanation for the lapse or face the prospect of having its vice-chairperson appear in person in the court.

The DDA drew the court’s ire after a commercial tenant in Nehru Nagar sought the de-sealing of his 160-sq yards premises,which was sealed in 2006 as part of the apex court’s earlier orders. The bench,after going through the records,asked how the applicant could seek de-sealing when the premises were allegedly on an encroached public land owned by the DDA.

“You are not able to explain as to why we should allow or entertain your prayer. It seems to be an absolute mockery of the law,” the bench observed.

Senior counsel and amicus curiae Ranjit Kumar told the bench that this was not an isolated incident and more than 14,300 illegal colonies have come up on public land,due to the indifference of the DDA.

Addressing DDA,the court said,“You are the public trustee,supposed to protect land. But they (the officers) are all hand-in-glove with them (encroachers) for extraneous reasons.”

The apex court had in 2006 ordered the sealing of several unauthorised structures in the Capital and is presently examining the validity of the DDA’s 2021 Masterplan for Delhi,after petitions were filed by NGOs,individuals and civil society members challenging the validity of the Masterplan.