Panchkula RWA, HSVP at odds over ‘conversion’ of school plot into group housing society
The RWA, House Owner Welfare Association, Sector 21, Panchkula, has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, challenging a public notice of June 16 by HSVP for auction of the site in question for a group housing society, alleging that the land earmarked for high school is sought to be altered for the group housing project.
A residents’ welfare association (RWA) in Panchkula has dragged Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) to high court over the alleged conversion of a school plot into a group housing society site.
The RWA, House Owner Welfare Association, Sector 21, Panchkula, has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, challenging a public notice of June 16 by HSVP for auction of the site in question for a group housing society, alleging that the land earmarked for high school is sought to be altered for the group housing project.
The petition, filed through lawyer Sanjiv Gupta, alleged that the move was in violation of the original zonal and sectoral plan. “There was nothing of that sort which compelled the authorities to convert the same into a group housing society. The grievance in the present case is that the various sites earmarked for common purposes etc. are being utilised for other purposes without any amendment as mandated in the law,” the plea said.
It argues that residents are co-sharers and are having interest in the common area and facilities. “Any change in the common area and facilities should not have been carried out without the consent of the allottees of the sector… The idea is not to burden to sector with a group housing society. If, the respondents were so eager to carve out the same, it would have been done abutting Sector 20 or in the adjoining area, which are meant for group housing projects,” it stated adding that if such a huge society came in the area, then it would add to the infrastructural burden and curtail the facilities already given to the inhabitants.
In its brief response, the HSVP, through additional advocate general Deepak Sabharwal had submitted that changes have been made in the original plan as norms for school sites were changed. Now, only a minimum of two acres is required for a school site, which in the present case is 2.28 acres and it is the remaining portion of 2.35 which was being utilised for a group housing society.
The HSVP further added that an authority which has the power to issue a notification, orders, rules, or bylaws has the undoubted power to add to, amend, vary, rescind or modify the notification etc in a like manner. The HSVP chief administrator is the competent authority to amend/modify any layout plan, if it is felt that the earlier plan was not fulfilling its purpose and not found feasible due to any circumstances, the court was told, adding that keeping in view the local requirements, the original plan of the sector has been modified. The high court vacation bench of justice Anil Kshetarpal and justice Deepak Manchanda, though did not stay the auction proceedings. But it has sought a detailed response from the HSVP on the issues raised by the RWA.
