Director general of the Haryana town and country planning department, TC Gupta, was on Monday held guilty of contempt by the Punjab and Haryana high court for issuing a licence to private realty developer Anant Raj Industries for construction of residential colonies in Sector 63A of Gurgaon. The licence was issued despite the court’s orders to maintain status quo.
The quantum of sentence would be announced on July 30.
The high court had, on August 18 last year, directed the state government to maintain status quo on allotment and implementation of the final development plan of Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex 2025 published through a notification on May 25, 2011.
The court orders came on a contempt petition filed by Bimal Kumar Dutta, a resident of Faridabad, who had originally moved the high court last year, seeking directions against the implementation of the Gurgaon-Manesar development plan 2025 due to “faulty” planning of new Sectors 63A and 67A.
He had said that the structure of the new sectors violated the law and was against zoning regulations. The purpose was to grab 20% of the net planned area in the sectors for giving to group housing schemes to be developed by some colonisers, it was alleged.
Dutta had asserted that for acquiring 20% of the net planned area, 20 applicants had submitted their application forms on October 4, 2010, when only the draft of development plan had been published. This meant that the proposed beneficiaries had relevant information prior to the plan’s finalisation, it was alleged, also hinting at collusion of government officials.
{{/usCountry}}Dutta had asserted that for acquiring 20% of the net planned area, 20 applicants had submitted their application forms on October 4, 2010, when only the draft of development plan had been published. This meant that the proposed beneficiaries had relevant information prior to the plan’s finalisation, it was alleged, also hinting at collusion of government officials.
{{/usCountry}}The HC subsequently issued stay orders, but after the DG issued the licence to the private firm, Dutta filed the contempt petition.