Delhi HC has upheld the CIC decision on DLF subsidiary’s change of land use near Rashtrapati Bhavan. Now, all such land use changes will be available in public domain

Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra’s cosy relationship with DLF has come under scanner once again with the Delhi High Court, on 3rd December, dismissing a petition of DLF’s subsidiary, Edward Keventer (Successors) Pvt Ltd. This company had challenged the Central Information Commission (CIC)’s ruling on making public, documents pertaining to 22-acre prime dairy farm land, behind Rashtrapati Bhavan estate, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The controversy over the land, where DLF’s subsidiary was all set to construct high-rise residential buildings, reached a boiling point with national security agencies objecting to construction in this VVIP area of Lutyen’s Delhi. Thereafter, the Delhi High Court had given a stay on construction.

Delhi based RTI Activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal had filed an RTI with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and asked for the following information:

1. Is it true that change of land-use has been sought from Dairy Farm to Residential Group Housing for property situated at Block No. 48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021

2. If yes, copy of application seeking the said change in land-use as in query (1) above mentioning also complete details of the person/ firm/ company etc owning the said land including partners/directors of the land-owning firm/ company etc

3. Complete information on action taken on any such application for change in land-use in respect of property situated at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021 together with related correspondence/documents/file-notings mentioning also present status of the said land and also of the application filed for land use

4. Complete information on amount of money deposited as application-money towards change of land-use as in queries above

5. Complete information on referring matter of change in land-use of the said property as in queries above to other concerned ministries/ agencies/ departments/ persons etc together with all related correspondence/ file-notings/ documents etc

6. Complete information on objections against change in land-use either by MoUD and/ or by any other ministries/ agencies/ departments/ persons etc together by copies of any such objections

7. Is it true that security-agencies and/or others concerned have registered objections against any such sought permission for construction to be done at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021, especially because of proximity of the plot with Rashtrapati Bhavan?

8. If yes, please provide details together with related file-notings/ documents/correspondence etc on abjections raised in regard with security-aspects

9. Is the property situated at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021 in the Lutyen Bungalow Zone (LBZ)?

10. Complete information on areas and postal-zones covered by LBZ and about restrictions applicable for new constructions in LBZ mentioning also maximum height permissible for constructing any building, residential or commercial, in the LBZ?

11. Height of the building/ apartment-complex etc mentioned in the submitted plan for the property situated at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021 while seeking change in land-use

12. Complete information about buildings in LBZ constructed in violation of norms including about height of such buildings mentioning separately norm violated by each of such building and year of construction of such buildings

13. Complete information on action taken on buildings having constructed in LBZ violating norms set for constructions in LBZ area mentioning also responsibility fixed and action taken against concerned ones for violation in construction-rules for LBZ area

14. Has any responsibility been fixed as far as illegal constructions are concerned? Their details?

15. Any other related information

The CPIOs thwarted Agrawal’s request and forwarded his application to the Municipal Corporation, Delhi, which in turn sent it to the MoUD once again. Agrawal said, “The CPIO at MoUD (Delhi Division) declined information on all the queries of the RTI petition even though many of the queries did not refer to property situated at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi-110021. Even in respect of queries relating to this property, larger public-interest is involved because of high stake of money due to commercial aspects is involved.”

Agrawal felt that the CPIO should have invoked the `Third party’ clause.

The RTI activist, then filed a petition with the Central Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma, who directed the Ministry-MoUD to provide complete and detailed information on land-use change allowed from Dairy Farm to Residential Group Housing for property situated at Block No.48, Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi­110021. Rashtrapati Bhavan, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) raised serious security concerns.

Agrawal said, “The MoUD is amongst the most notorious public-authorities in complying with CIC-verdicts and properly responding to RTI petitions. RTI petitions with uncomfortable queries are unnecessarily transferred to hundreds of offices of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) misusing section 6(3) of RTI Act where RTI responses pour from these CPWD offices providing information relating to them as 'NIL'.”

DLF subsidiary, Edward Keventer (Successors) filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the ‘third party’ clause was not used by the CIC. The CIC’s counsel in turn proved to the Court that indeed the petitioner was informed about this request and had replied that it had no stake in the property. Thus, the Judge dismissed the petition.

Agrawal said, “It is noteworthy that Dr Subramanian Swamy, in his letters addressed to President of India alleged involvement of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in the dubious land-deal highlighted in the RTI queries, said to have been the biggest ever land-scam in the country. With the petition of DLF subsidiary (Edward Keventors Successors) now dismissed, MoUD and any other concerned government-agency should review decision of allowing land-use change in the earlier UPA-regime in the controversial matter where even intelligence-authorities and President Secretariat are learnt to have raised objections from the security-aspects with the land-project being in close vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Conclusion: All land use changes, particularly in urban areas, most of them notorious changes, comes under public information under the RTI Act, as it involves larger public interest.

(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)