In a significant ruling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has invalidated the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority’s (GMADA) imposition of preferential location charges on land transferees. The court’s decision came in response to 118 petitions challenging these charges under the 2013 land pooling policy.
Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Vikas Suri presided over the case, scrutinizing the Punjab government’s land pooling policy outlined in a notification dated June 19, 2013, and the accompanying brochure for the Sector 88-89 allotment scheme in Mohali. Their examination revealed that the policy did not mandate any additional charges for preferred locations, thus siding with the petitioners.
Originally, the 2013 policy was designed to provide residential and commercial plots as compensation for lands requisitioned for development. This policy included a preferential location charge (PLC) for allottees who opted for plots different from the ones initially assigned. GMADA extended these charges to transferees who had acquired plots from the original allottees, prompting the legal challenge.
The High Court’s judgment emphasized that both the original allottees and their transferees should be treated equally, noting no justifiable basis for differentiating between them. The bench declared, “There cannot be any distinction between the original allottees and their transferees nor there appears to be any well-founded intelligible differentia having a nexus with the objective sought to be achieved.”
As a result of the ruling, the court ordered GMADA to cancel the PLC charges and refund any such payments made by the petitioners, with an interest of 6% per annum from the date of payment. Furthermore, GMADA is directed to ensure the delivery of encumbrance-free plot possession to the petitioners within two weeks and to execute the necessary conveyance deeds within a fortnight.
