The Supreme Court Monday extended till July 31 the deadline for house owners, whose buildings were ordered to be demolished due to illegal constructions in the forest area of Aravalli hills, to vacate their premises subject to furnishing of undertaking in this regard.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta said the house owners, who were earlier directed by the apex court to vacate their premises by March 31, would get time till July 31 if they file undertaking that they would vacate the properties by then.
The bench said this after the counsel appearing for some of the house owners urged that the time should be extended as the owners were senior citizens and they needed some more time to look for another accommodation.
"We extend the time till July 31, 2019 to vacate the premises subject to furnishing of an undertaking within four weeks from today," the bench said.
The court made it clear that if the undertaking would not be filed, the already fixed time till March 31 would remain in force.
There are 33 house owners in Faridabad's Kant Enclave and they were earlier asked by the court to vacate their premises by March 31 this year.
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On September 11 last year, the apex court had termed "frightening" the illegal construction in the forest area of Aravalli hills and directed the Haryana government to demolish the unauthorised structures built there after August 18, 1992.
During the hearing on Monday, senior lawyer Ranjit Kumar, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, told the bench that a committee set up by the court earlier has filed a report with regard to the valuation of properties at Kant Enclave.
He said the court had formed a committee, comprising the chief secretary and principal secretary of Town and Country Planning Department of Haryana, to look into the documents regarding ownership and valuation of the properties.
The counsel representing Haryana said they have deposited Rs 16.5 crore in the apex court registry in pursuance to the earlier order.
The bench said the money deposited in the registry be distributed among the house owners as per the valuation report of the committee.
It made it clear that in case any house owner is aggrieved by the valuation report, he or she has the remedy to approach the competent civil court.
The Haryana government had earlier informed the court that there were 19 plots having two-storeyed building there while houses having ground and first floor were made in eight plots.
He said in several other plots, only boundary walls with perhaps one or two rooms were made there.
In its September 11 last year order, the apex court had lashed out at Haryana government and said the construction activity carried out by R Kant and Company, a private realtor who was a party to the case, was clearly in violation of the August 18, 1992 notification and also in blatant defiance of the court's orders.
The 1992 notification issued under the provisions of the Punjab Land Preservation (PLP) Act had prohibited clearing or breaking up of land not ordinarily under cultivation.
Permission to break the land for cultivation could be permitted by the Divisional Forest Officer of Faridabad Forest Division, the notification had said, adding that in any event construction activity could not be permitted even by the Divisional Forest Officer.