₹469 cr imposed in fines since 2017: Delhi sealing panel to SC

These penalties include levies related to regularisation, conversion charges, one-time parking charges, and registration charges

A three-member Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee (sealing panel), in its September report, has said that penalties and regularisation charges worth ₹469.31 crore have been imposed on government departments out of which ₹147.69 crore have been realised.

The monitoring committee was set up in 2006 to identify unauthorised structures and check misuse of properties in Delhi. (HT Photo)

The report, dated September 14, added that the four departments concerned—Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Land and Development Office (L&DO) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) — were yet to realise penalties worth ₹321.61 crore.

These penalties and charges include levies related to regularisation, conversion charges, one-time parking charges, and registration charges, among others, imposed between December 2017 and July 2023.

The monitoring committee was set up in 2006 to identify unauthorised structures and check misuse of properties in Delhi. The committee, comprising former adviser of election commission KJ Rao, former Environment Pollution Control Authority chairman Bhure Lal and Major General Som Jhingon was revived in December 2017 and took major sealing drives in areas like Defence Colony, Sunder Nagar, Amar Colony, and Lajpat Nagar, among other places.

The report said penalties worth ₹137.1 crore were imposed on MCD properties out of which ₹123.3 crore was realised by the agency, while ₹13.75 crore was pending. Penalties worth ₹7.03 crore were imposed on NDMC and only ₹18 lakh was pending. Most pendency pertains to cases related to L&DO and DDA where penalties worth ₹33.7 crore and ₹273.9 crore were pending.

HT reached out to DDA and L&DO but neither responded to queries seeking comments on high pendency.

A senior MCD official said recoveries of penalties have been made in most MCD cases and possible legal means will be pursued in the remaining ones.

Meanwhile, shopping federations and traders said these penalties were unjust and alleged that the panel did not act as a neutral body. “The sealing panel should have acted as a neutral arbitrator between MCD and traders but decisions were taken based on status reports filed by MCD officers. We demand that the panel be disbanded,” said Vishal Ohri, who heads the Local Shopping Centre Federation of Delhi.

They added they were forced to pay a non-refundable ₹1 lakh to the panel to review an application. “Even if the application is rejected, the fee is not refunded,” said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, Confederation of All India Traders.