Govt gets notice in 20-yr-old dispute

A city court has issued notices to secretary level officials of the Delhi government, for failing to produce satellite pictures in a nearly two decade old land dispute between Dargah Panch Peer on one side and the Central government, the Civil Services Officer’s Institute (CSOI) and various municipal bodies on the other, reports Sumit Saxena.

A city court has issued notices to secretary level officials of the Delhi government, for failing to produce satellite pictures in a nearly two decade old land dispute between Dargah Panch Peer on one side and the Central government, the Civil Services Officer’s Institute (CSOI) and various municipal bodies on the other.

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This is for the first time that a Delhi court has ordered Delhi government to collect satellite images of the disputed area so as to “assist in the delivery of justice with precision”.

Additional District Judge Kamini Lau said, “Why can't we use modern technology to resolve age old land disputes?”

“It is unfortunate that despite the court order, no government officer has done anything.”

The judge directed the principal secretaries of Urban Development Department and Information Technology, Delhi, to ensure presence of deputy secretaries of the department concerned in court along with duly certified copies of the photographs.

Dargah Panch Peer had approached the court claiming that despite court's specific orders, several trees were illegally pruned on the land for the construction of an elite institute for civil servants.

According to the officials of Dargah, the ongoing construction has also resulted in damages to the Dargah property.

Dismissing the contentions of government counsel, the court on October 31 had ordered production of aerial photographs to solve the dispute.

The court noted that the department of information technology could seek assistance from the search engines sites to gather the photographs. The court has fixed January 28, 2010, as the next date of hearing.