Delhi HC seeks Centre’s reply on Congress plea over former HQ property

The Delhi High Court sought responses from the Centre and Delhi government on the Congress party’s plea seeking execution of a sale deed for its former headquarters at 7, Jantar Mantar Road. The court questioned the petition’s maintainability and scheduled the next hearing for September 14

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the stand of the Centre and Delhi government on a petition by the Indian National Congress seeking the execution of a sale deed in the party’s favour for its former headquarters at 7, Jantar Mantar Road here. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav issued notice to the governments on the petition as well as an application for interim relief, seeking their reply on both aspects.

Even as senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for All India Congress Committee, urged the court to pass an interim order to ensure that the premises is not allotted to someone else in the meantime, Justice Kaurav questioned the maintainability of the writ petition.

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“I have a doubt about the maintainability. Therefore, if you have to press for interim relief, you have to satisfy that the petition is maintainable. See what the response of the government is. You perhaps have to file a civil suit.. This seems to be to wriggle out of limitation,” the judge orally said. Singhvi said the petitioner party was an allottee and has been in possession of the property for decades but the authorities were yet to act on its request to execute a sale deed in its favour.

“I have been asking for execution of conveyance deed repeatedly. There is no denial. There is no response..I am in possession for 70 years. I have got everything – all documents, all payments. They should not allot it to somebody else,” he contended. In the petition, the Congress party stated that according to Delhi government’s records, it has been in possession of a part of the property since February 1946 and an allotment was made in its favour in 1956.

The plea further informed that in 1959, the party paid Rs 6.1 lakh to the Government of India towards sale consideration, in addition to paying Rs 96,962 and Rs 4,849 per annum towards additional premium and additional ground rent for change of user.

However, the execution of a sale deed in the party’s favour was delayed for several reasons, including litigation by tenants occupying the outhouse and the party also split into two factions in 1969, it added.

The petition stated that in 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that after the split, the petitioner was entitled to all properties and funds existing prior to 1969, and consequently, numerous representations were made to the Delhi government– which is responsible for management of the property– from 2017 onwards to execute a sale deed, but to no avail.

“The respondent No. 2 (Delhi government) has failed to execute the conveyance deed in favour of the petitioner with respect to the subject property despite the official records showing the decision of the government to allot/sell the subject property to the petitioner, and pursuant to payment of the consideration amount by the petitioner. The respondent No. 2 has failed to pay any heed to the directives of the government of India to take necessary steps for the execution of the deed of conveyance in favour of the petitioner. It is to be noted that the petitioner is in possession of a part of the main building of the subject property,” the petition said. The court listed the case for the next hearing on September 14.