THE WRIT PETITIONERS APPROACHED THE HIGH COURT, aggrieved by the various orders passed with regard to cancellation of a plot allotted to Milkhi Ram s/o Madho Ram. The first prayer made the writ petitioners was to issue a writ in the nature of Certiorari quashing the impugned orders for cancellation of the premises i.e. plot bearing No. 192, Sector 40, Chandigarh especially in view of the fact that petitioner is ready to made the entire payment due till date.

When the writ petition came for hearing before the High Court, the petitioner stated that it was not necessary for the court to go into the merits of the case, since the writ petitioners proposed to file an application under Rule 21-A of the Chandigarh Lease- hold of Sites and Buildings Rules, 1973. It was also submitted that in case such an application filed the same would be directed to be considered in the light of the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Jasbir Singh Bakshi v. Union Territory, Chandigarh and others [2004 (10) SCC 440]. In terms of the request made, the writ petition was disposed of by the impugned order.

Thus aggrieved the Union Territory filed special leave petition. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, set aside the impugned judgement and remitted the writ petition to the High Court for fresh consideration in accordance with law.

The operative part of the judgement read as under :

The main contention of the appellant is that Jasbir Singh Bakshi (supra) does not apply in the case of the writ petitioners. That was a case where this Court considered the deposit made by the defaulter and virtually gave some more time to pay the balance. Additionally, it is pointed out that it was a case of resumption and not a case for re-transfer under Rule 21-A of the Rules. As far as the writ petitioners are concerned, it is pointed out that the stage where the writ petitioners could seek for some more time to make the defaulted installments had already been over before this Court by virtue of order dated 12.12.1991 in Special Leave Petition (C) No. 75920 of 1991. Therefore, the High Court went wrong in disposing of the writ petition with a direction to the appellant to reconsider the case the writ petitioners in the light of Jasbir Singh Bakshi’s case, it is submitted.

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Be that as it may, in view of the background of the litigation wherein the writ petitioners had challenged the successive orders with regard to cancellation and rejection of request made by them for time for re-payment, without considering the merits of the matter, a direction could not have been issued to consider the case of the writ petitioners in the light of Jasbir Singh Bakshi’s case, which we have already noted above, in our view, does not apply to the case of the writ petitioners.

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We, therefore, allow this appeal, set aside the impugned judgement and remit the writ petition to the High Court for fresh consideration in accordance with law.

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Reference : Supreme Court. Estate Officer, U.T. Chandigarh and Others v. Rajan Soi and others, civil appeal no. 423 of 2008 (from the Judgement and Order dated 21.4.2006 of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Civil Writ Petition No. 20326 of 2004).