HUDA 'overlooking' apex court ruling - Real Estate India

??|?? September 24, 2012 ?? 09:15am ??|Contributed by manoja

Repeated demands for higher land cost allottees? nightmare

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

When HUDA advertised its prestigious Sector 26 Panchkula extension scheme around two decades ago, Col MS Mohan, a serving helicopter pilot in the Army, thought his post-retirement woes were over. His joy of owning a property has turned into a nightmare with HUDA repeatedly demanding escalated plot price every few years. Thousands of HUDA allottees in Panchkula extension are a harassed lot like Col MS Mohan.

HUDA is taking advantage of a clause in the allotment letter which says: ?Rate is tentative and enhanced compensation for land would be recoverable from the plot holder if awarded by court in future?. For a plot that was supposed to cost Col Mohan Rs 2.94 lakh , he would pay nearly Rs 21 lakh over 18 years after he makes two more additional payments. This includes interest, extension fee etc.

HUDA has sent Col Mohan another notice demanding Rs 9 lakh. This money has to be paid to the farmers whose land was acquired by HUDA for these plots as the farmers have won a legal case for enhancement of compensation. ?There are hundreds of residents in Sector 25, 26, 27 and 28 in Panchkula and many others living in different HUDA schemes who have to face a similar predicament for HUDA?s oversight in acquiring properties free of legal tangle?, Col Mohan says.

A senior HUDA official said HUDA was a ?no profit, no loss? institution and all liabilities pertaining to areas developed by it were borne by the beneficiaries. This view is, however, not shared by the HUDA allottees, who say that the government must bail out HUDA and not burden the allottees two decades after they were given plots. ?Had we had known that the liability is going to last a lifetime, we would have gone for other avenues available at that time?, is a majority view of the Joint Action Committee, Panchkula (JACP), which is espousing the cause of those affected.

HUDA is going ahead with recovering enhanced compensation from the allottees despite a ruling of a Division Bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya of the Supreme Court in a case against the Haryana Housing Board where the court ruled: ?Once the allottee pays the total price, he may not be subjected to the burden of additional cost after a number of years?. This was in a case where the board had asked for additional cost from owners of EWS Housing Flats after 10 years of allotment.

The JACP president has in representations sent to the Estate Officer, HUDA, from time to time, have opposed the enhanced compensation. HUDA is charging 15 per cent interest on a compounding basis to those delaying payments which is against HUDA?s own policy of charging simple interest.

It has highlighted that many beneficiaries are handicapped persons or award winners who were allotted plots on discretion. They too have been subjected to high compensation escalation that they cannot afford to pay. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued an order to help resolve the issue but the matter is awaiting a suitable solution.

SUPREME COURT RULING

HUDA is going ahead with recovering enhanced compensation from the allottees despite a ruling of a Division Bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya of the Supreme Court in a case against the Haryana Housing Board where the court ruled: ?Once the allottee pays the total price, he may not be subjected to the burden of additional cost after a number of years?. This was in a case where the board had asked for additional cost from owners of EWS Housing Flats after 10 years of allotment

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