Premium for extra storey: Chandigarh estate officer’s order quashed

The decision will have direct bearing on 83 similar cases from Sector 17 pending before the estate office.

The chief administrator has quashed the order of the estate officer wherein an appellant was directed to deposit additional premium on account of an extra floor.

Architectural control designs of SCOs in Sector 17 were introduced in 1981, which permitted the construction of five number of floors on payment of extra charges, but such conditions cannot be applied retrospectively to the building plans already sanctioned, the Punjab and Haryana high court had noted earlier. (HT File Photo)

The decision will have direct bearing on 83 similar cases from Sector 17 pending before the estate office.

The chief administrator, in an appeal filed by M/S Kapsons Agencies Pvt Ltd, with respect to SCOs 136, 137, 138 in Sector 17, set aside the order issued by the estate office on October 6, 2017.

“The building plans of the site were sanctioned in 1975 and the temporary sewerage connection was taken in 1976, prior to the issuance of the 1981 notification regarding extra floor, then how the composition fee is demanded in the case,” states the chief administrator’s order.

The Punjab and Haryana high court had earlier also noted that “architectural control designs of SCOs in Sector 17 were introduced only in 1981, which permitted the construction of five number of floors on payment of extra charges but such conditions cannot be applied retrospectively to the building plans already sanctioned”.