HC stays govt order asking Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust to stop work on hospital

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed a government order restraining the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) from carrying out construction of an eye hospital in Ullawas village in Gurugram.
A vacation Bench of Justice Anita Chaudhry and Justice Harminder Singh issued a notice to the Haryana government and fixed July 13 as the next date of hearing.
The RGCT filed the petition challenging the June 8 order through its counsels Vivek Tankha and R Kartikeya.
The trust contended that the order was "illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice", and sought its quashing.
The counsel submitted that the petitioner was served with a copy of the impugned order, dated June 8, even as the application for grant of occupation certificate was pending and other permissions were also in operation.

The impugned order also mentioned that the change of land use permission granted to the trust had expired and the occupation certificate too had already been refused and the land had allegedly not been put to use within two years.

The petitioner was immediately asked to stop the construction work and submit relevant documents regarding extension of CLU permissions, the counsel submitted before the court.
The trust sought the court's direction to the authorities to consider its application for grant of occupation certificate.
The RGCT got the land, measuring nearly five acres, on lease in 2010 for 33 years for setting up the charitable eye hospital.

The Town and Country Planning department had granted the change of land use (CLU) permission in 2011 to the RGCT for setting up the hospital.
Soon after coming to power in Haryana, the BJP government had announced that it would look into how "several extensions" were given to the trust for the construction of the hospital.
A senior minister in the BJP government in the state had earlier said if the gram panchayat of Ullawas village proposed to take back the land, the state government would consider the same.