The Delhi High Court has asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Delhi Government to respond to a plea by over 60 families, whose shanties were removed from Gol Dak Khana, seeking allotment of flats as part of the rehabilitation scheme.
Justice Rekha Palli also issued a notice to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and posted the case for further hearing on December 3.
The plea said these 60 petitioners and their families were illegally evicted from Gol Market in central Delhi in 2010 and in compliance with an October 2011 order of the authorities, they are staying at a community centre which is a shelter home and awaiting rehabilitation.
The plea said the eligibility of petitioners for rehabilitation was established and full payment had been made to the authorities for rehabilitation under a 2015 policy of the Delhi Government as per which the eligible families would get ownership rights over the allotted apartment.
The petition has challenged a circular issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in December last year as per which all the vacant and under-construction houses under the erstwhile schemes — Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and Rajiv Awas Yojana — be available for affordable rental houses for urban migrants and poor.
The petitioners submitted that even though they were entitled to be allotted flats by the DUSIB and the Ministry of Urban Development as part of the rehabilitation scheme, they have not been allotted the same on account of the December 2020 circular of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
