Illegal Multiple Plot Allotments: HC rejects Manohar Lal Khattar government’s status report

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. (File/Photo)

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court Wednesday rejected the Haryana government’s latest status report on illegal multiple plot allotments in the state and asked it to register FIRs in all identified cases within four weeks. During a resumed hearing of the case on the illegal plot allotments in Haryana before the single bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary, the Haryana Urban Development Authority’s (HUDA) decision to not register FIRs against its employees also came under question after the bench was told only notices for departmental action have been served to them.

HUDA officials informed the High Court that around 2,050 cases of multiple or double allotment instances have been found under the 18 reserved categories and out of the 1,500 scrutinised cases, 1,208 FIRs have been registered till date.

However, the submission was contested by advocate Harmanjit Singh Sethi, one of the petitioner counsel in the case, who said the government is hiding the names of some persons who have also have benefited because of the double allotment.

“Many senior police officers and even a Haryana minister has been found to have double plot allotments but no FIR has been yet registered in their cases,” said Sethi. The High Court has now asked the government to re-submit its status report in the case by the next date of hearing in January 2018. It also barred the lower courts from proceeding on any cases related to the matter till the next date of hearing.