Commercial and industrial plots: UT admn not against leasehold to freehold conversion, says Purohit

UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday said the city administration was not against the conversion of commercial and industrial properties from leasehold to freehold.

Days ahead of a crucial Supreme Court hearing, the UT administrator and Punjab governor, Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday evening said the city administration was not against the conversion of commercial and industrial properties from leasehold to freehold.

In the hurriedly called press conference, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit asserted that the entire controversy had been due to a “goof-up”, which gave an impression that the UT had changed its stand and was against allowing conversion of these properties from leasehold to freehold. (PTI File Photo)

In the hurriedly called press conference at a short notice of 45 minutes, the administrator took questions only on this issue and asserted that the entire controversy had been due to a “goof-up”, which gave an impression that the UT had changed its stand and was against allowing conversion of these properties from leasehold to freehold. This was the first-ever press conference held by Purohit since he took over in September last.

In July, the UT had put the onus on the Centre for the delay in the resolution of the issue and had claimed that it had sent four reminders to the MHA but a decision was still pending. On August 29, it submitted a document to the Supreme Court in which eight objections were raised by the UT to the proposal. It was this “document” that was termed a “goof-up” by the governor in his press conference and genesis of this “controversy.”

Blames previous governors

Purohit admitted that the decision in this regard had to be taken by the administrator and blamed previous governors for not taking the same. Former governor Shivraj Patil in fact was opposed to it, he said. Patil remained the UT administrator from 2010 to 2015.

“There is no doubt about it, the governor has the power to take a decision on this issue. But the previous governors did not take a decision and sent the matter to Delhi and Delhi also did not take a decision,” he said blaming previous governors for the delay in the decision but without naming anyone.

He further said that from Day 1, he was in favour of freehold and that was why future auction of properties was allowed on a freehold basis, which has been started now. The governor further added that the deputy commissioner had undertaken a visit to Delhi to meet MHA officials and adviser Dharam Pal would be leaving on Wednesday. “There is no ambiguity in Delhi also. It was just a goof-up,” he asserted indicating that the MHA too was on board in this decision.

There are 6,621 commercial and 1,451 industrial plots on leasehold. Notably, issues like allowing property conversion are pending with the administration for now more than three decades. The industry as well as the traders’ community has been demanding the same for years claiming that the current system is not industry-friendly. The BJP in its manifestoes has also been promising that it would be allowed. The UT allowed the conversion of residential properties in 1996.

How matter reached SC

It was in September last year, the apex court had directed the administration to constitute a committee to review and streamline the processes of sanction of mutation, grant of occupancy certificate, no-objection certificate and other citizen-centric requirements, including calculation of unearned profit, under the 1973 or 2007 Rules. The dispute before the SC was taken up by the estate office against a consumer court order in which it was penalised on the complaint of a city resident on an issue related to allowing the leasehold of property to freehold. In its September 7, 2021, order, the SC had asked the UT to constitute a panel to streamline the working of the estate office.

The court had ordered that the committee would submit its report to the administrator and action taken reports would be filed in SC after four months. The UT constituted the committee on October 5, 2021, and the committee made the first set of recommendations in February 2022. The UT has so far submitted four action-taken reports (March, April, May and July 2022). In all of these on some key issues, it has put the onus on the Centre for the delay in resolving these issues. In July, the Supreme Court had given one month’s time to the UT administration and the MHA to decide the issue by August 29. However, on August 29, the UT came up with eight objections, which then led to order in which SC gave three weeks to resolve the issue else asked union home secretary to remain present on September 16.