The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the Chandigarh administration’s decision to prohibit the floor-wise sale of houses across the city, a ruling that carries significant implications for residential property ownership in the region.
The court’s decision rejects multiple petitions that challenged the administration’s 2023 notification, which banned the conversion of residential houses into floor-wise apartments citywide. Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Vikas Suri presided over the bench, suggesting that while the administration may revisit the decision, any changes must align strictly with the Chandigarh Master Plan (CMP)-2031 and involve consultations with the heritage committee for areas outside of Phase 1 (Sectors 1 to 30).
This area, recognized for its heritage status as the Le Corbusier zone, was specifically addressed by the Supreme Court in January 2023. The top court ruled against the apartmentalization in these sectors, stating that the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee should consider redensification issues. Following the Supreme Court’s directives, the UT administration issued a notification in February 2023 that rejected building plans for residential properties unless all co-owners belonged to the same family.
This broader application of the rule beyond the initial 30 sectors sparked the legal challenge that led to the recent High Court ruling. The petitioners argued that the notification contradicted the Supreme Court’s guidelines by failing to consider redensification properly and misinterpreting the court’s stance on apartmentalization versus share-wise property sales.
Despite these arguments, the High Court found the administration’s actions to be in compliance with the Supreme Court’s rulings, emphasizing the need to avoid both the physical and legal fragmentation of property through the sale of apartments. The court also noted that allowing the sale of individual shares to a single owner might reduce the complications associated with apartmentalization and could potentially ease densification concerns in Phase 1 of Chandigarh.
