CONMT.PET.(C) No. 281-282 OF 2014 IN SPECIAL LEAVE JUDGMENT PETITION (C) NOs. 34794-34795 OF 2011
Mr. Sunil Kathuria, Chairman, Kathuria Public
School Educational and Charitable Society, is present
in this Court and he has tendered his unconditional
and absolute apology for not vacating the premises in
question in spite of the order passed by this Court.
The apology is accepted.
He has further stated that he is deemed to have
handed over possession of the land in question
including the premises constructed thereon on
30.04.2013, as per his undertaking given to this
Court on 09.12.2011.
At present, Kathuria Public School is being
managed by Sh. Rakesh Khanna, learned senior counsel,
in pursuance of this Court's order dated 01.08.2014.
He shall continue to look after the management of the
school till 30.04.2015 or till final decision, which
might be rendered by the High Court in Writ Petition
(C) No. 2009 of 2014, whichever is earlier.
Mr. Rakesh Khanna, learned senior counsel, had
been appointed as an Administrator to look after the
management of Kathuria Public School and hence, he
shall be paid an honorarium of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees
One Lac only) per month till 30.04.2015 from the day
he was appointed as such. The said honorarium (excluding the JUDGMENTexpenditure which might have beenincurred by him for the purpose of administration of
the school) shall be paid by Kathuria Public School
Educational and Charitable Society.
In view of the above order, the Contempt
Petition (C) Nos. 281-282 of 2014 are disposed of.
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 9220 OF 2014 [ARISING OUT OF SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) NO. 15796 OF 2014]
Leave granted.
Heard the learned senior counsel appearing for the
appellants as well as the school administrator
appointed by this Court.
Mr. Sunita Sharma, learned counsel, accepts notice
on behalf of Union of India and Mr. Ashwani Kumar,
learned counsel, accepts notice on behalf of Delhi
Development Authority (DDA).
Upon hearing the learned counsel for either side
and upon perusing the impugned Judgment, we find that
the High Court did not decide the Writ Petition, being
W.P.(C) No. 2009 of 2014 and CM. Application No. 4193
of 2014 on merits, for the reason that the contempt
petitions were pending in this Court and possession of
the land in question had not been handed over by the
appellants to the respondent – DDA. JUDGMENT
Since the contempt petitions have now been
disposed of and possession of the land in question has
also been taken over by Mr. Rakesh Khanna, learned
senior counsel, on behalf of DDA, the reasons for
which the writ petition was not decided on merits by
the High Court do not exist today.
In these circumstances, we quash and set aside the
impugned Judgment delivered by the High Court and
remand the matter to the High Court so that the writ
petition can be decided on merits.
Looking at the peculiar facts of the case, we
desire that the High Court should decide the writ
petition, preferably by 30th December, 2014 because at
present, the school is being run on the land in
question and the school is permitted to continue only
till 30th April, 2015, unless the petition filed by the
appellants challenging the validity of the acquisition
is allowed.
We have been informed by the learned counsel that
all matters which pertain to release of land in
question in pursuance of Section 24(2) of the Right to
Fair Compensation & Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act, 2013, are pending
before a Division Bench in Court No. 2 in the High Court. Therefore,JUDGMENTthe learned counsel for theappellants is permitted to mention this matter before
the High Court in Court No. 2 so that the matter can
be taken up for hearing at an early date.
The learned counsel appearing for either side have
assured this Court that their counterparts appearing
in the High Court shall extend their cooperation,
without praying for unnecessary adjournments, so that
the writ petition can be disposed of by the High Court
within the stipulated time.
With the above observations and directions, the
Civil Appeal is disposed of as allowed with no order
as to costs.
New Delhi; September 17, 2014.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
IN
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) No. 34794-34795 OF 2011
STATEMENT OF SH. SUNIL KATHURIA,
AGED 56 YRS
ON SA
I tender my unconditional and absolute apology for
what I have done.
R.O & A.C. 17.09.2014
New Delhi; JUDGMENTSeptember 17, 2014.