HC restrains Haryana from issuing CLU, licences in NCR

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday restrained the Haryana government from issuing licences and change of land use (CLU) permissions to builders and others in the area falling under the national capital region within Haryana.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday restrained the Haryana government from issuing licences and change of land use (CLU) permissions to builders and others in the area falling under the national capital region within Haryana.

The direction came from the division bench of justice SK Mittal on a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking directions to the state government not to notify sub-regional plans for various towns falling under the national capital region without getting necessary approval from the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB).

The petitioner had also sought directions that the government be restricted from issuing CLUs and licences in the NCR till the time sub-regional plans of NCR towns in the state were prepared according to the NCR Master Plan-2021 and approved by the NCRPB.

During the hearing on Friday, it came to light that the state had been granting licences and CLU permissions as per the local master plans in various towns though there was a Punjab and Haryana high court order of January 2014 whereby all sub-regional plans in the state were to be first approved by the NCRPB.

The high court came down heavily on the government and asked as to why the contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against it.

The division bench sought reply from the government and ordered that CLUs and licences not be issued till further orders in the area falling under the NCR.

The high court observed that it was important to have a planned growth in the NCR as in near future the region would be home to crores of people. “If there was haphazard construction now, the state would not be able to remove it in future,” the high court bench observed.

Petitioner’s counsel Aashish Chopra submitted that Haryana time and again was publishing master plans even though it was yet to get approval on the sub-regional plan for the region from the NCRPB.

He submitted that not only with respect to 2021, in some cases, the local master plans had been rolled out for periods beyond that which should not have been done. He alleged that it was being done with the only motive of granting licences to builders, which had resulted in mushrooming of colonies in the NCR without there being proper infrastructure facilities like roads, electricity and water.