- (1.) Four senior officers occupying high ranking office in the Army, now retired, are litigating for allotment of flats in Som Vihar (R. K. Puram, New Delhi) for the last fifteen years. How the controversy has arisen giving rise to the four appeals, two filed by Brig. Jetley, one by Lt. Col. Gupta and one by the Union of India shall be narrated presently but they do not leave a very satisfactory impression. All these officers have been running from the lowest court in the hierarchy to the highest court. And we are sorry to say so at times without disclosing correct facts. The Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) which has been established by the Union of India to construct houses for army personnel, both in service and retired too, has behaved casually, may be because the courts at different levels have been passing orders giving rise to conflicting claims raising hopes, of a flat in Som Vihar, in favour of each of the officers. How to adjust the equities Fortunately, the AWHO now at the instance of this court has filed affidavit which solves at least one problem that four flats are available. Who should get them and where is the only issue.
(2.) All these appeals and applications relate to allotment of flats in Som Vihar constructed by the AWHO. In 1979 the AWHO undertook to construct 422 flats in Som Vihar. It invited applications from the officers, both serving and retired, in 1979.932 persons registered themselves. 21 flats were reserved for ex-army service personnel. For remaining 401 flats lots were drawn. Shrijetley, Shri Dahiya and Shri Gupta were placed in the list of allotment at Sl. Nos, 102, 146 and 346 respectively. Shri Jetley deposited a sum of Rs. 5,100. 00 on 24/12/1979 as an initial deposit for getting himself registered. He deposited another sum of Rs. 35,000. 00, as required, beyond 17 days. Since there was delay, he deposited interest at the rate of six per cent for delayed payment. It was accepted and he was allotted placement at No. 102 in the seniority list. Sometime in 1981 the AWHO took a decision that since the deposit was made beyond 17 days, the allotment in his favour was liable to be cancelled and his seniority was pushed down to 895. This was challenged by Shri Jetley and he filed a suit for declaration for correcting his seniority and allotment of Flat No. J-306. The suit was dismissed on 10/10/1986. After the dismissal of the suit the AWHO allotted Flat No. J-306 to another officer. Shri Jetley filed an appeal. It was allowed in 1988 and the order bringing down his seniority was declared to be illegal. But since by then the flat allotted to him had already been allotted in favour of another officer, the authorities were helpless in complying with the order, therefore, he filed another Suit No. 66 of 1990 for mandatory injunction for enforcement of the decree. In this suit an order was passed on 16/1/1990 by a Single Judge of the High court restraining the AWHO from allotting Flat No. C-306 and Flat No. C-305 at R. K. Puram to anybody till further orders. On coming to know of this order, Shri Dahiya moved an application that he was allotted Flat No. F-305 and his placement in seniority was at SI. No. 146, therefore, the order directing that Flat No. F-305 may be kept reserved may be recalled. This application was rejected on 9/5/1991. Dahiya filed first appeal against that order before the division bench and on 11/2/1992 the impugned order was passed. It was observed by the bench that this flat was allotted to Shri Dahiya in 1984 and he had paid the entire price but could not get possession due to restraint order passed against the AWHO in three different litigations for not delivering the possession of the flat to Shri Dahiya. The bench observed that in two litigations Shri Dahiya was able to get the stay orders vacated and the appeal filed by Shri Jetley was the third litigation in which the stay order had been obtained without impleading Shri Dahiya. The bench, therefore, was of the opinion that on consideration of the matter prima facie it was satisfied that there was no impediment in the way of AWHO in delivering possession of Flat No. F-305 to Shri Dahiya particularly because Flat No. C-306 had been kept reserved to be allotted to the rightful person whether Shri Jetley or anyone else who was found to be entitled. This order is subject-matter of Civil arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 3255 of 1992. This order was made absolute on 10/3/1992. This order is subject-matter of Civil arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 4536 of 1992. In the Civil of Shri Jetley this court while entertaining the Special Leave Petition against the first order passed an ex parte order that if any allotment of the flat was made it would expressly be subject to the result of the appeal and the allottee should be holding possession till then only as an agent of the court. The order was modified on 15/5/1992, after hearing counsel for both the parties, by directing that any allotment made in the meanwhile may be subject to the orders made in the special leave petition. It may not be out of place to mention that in the written statement filed by the AWHO in Suit No. 66 of 1990 filed by Shri Jetley it was pointed out by the AWHO that the allotment of Shri Jetley was cancelled and he having been pushed down in the order of seniority and his suithaving been dismissed, the AWHO allotted the flat in his name to another officer. The AWHO further pointed out that Flat No. F-305 was already allotted to Shri Dahiya in consequence of order passed in Writ Petition No. 610 of 1980, LPA No. 90 of 1985 and judgment and decree in Suit No. 2850 of 1990. It was stated that Flat No. J-604 was reserved for Shri Gupta in Writ Petition No. 1520 of 1993 and Flat No. J-306 was reserved in Suit No. M-36/84 in favour of Shri Khandpur. The written statement further pointed out that the flat reserved in favour of Shri Jetley was allotted to one Col. I. P. Gaur when the suit filed by him was dismissed and no interim order was granted and the flat allotted to Col. Gupta was handed over to Col. Goswamy on 21/5/1986.
(3.) The appeal of Shri Gupta is directed against the direction given by the High court on intervention of Shri Dahiya that Flat No. F-305 may be allotted to him. A little background of this litigation is necessary. A flat was allotted to Shri Gupta in Som Vihar. But the allotment was cancelled as the AWHO came to know that he was having another flat. This order was challenged by Shri Gupta in the High court. In December 1983 the High court passed an order in presence of AWHO that one flat may be kept reserved for him in Som Vihar. The petition it appears was dismissed in 1985 for non-appearance of the learned counsel of Shri Gupta. He filed an application for recall of the order. It was allowed on 13/3/1987. In respect of interim order, the court observed that the order dated 15/12/1983 shall stand revived provided the flat in Som Vihar had not been allotted. Till then there was no difficulty but on 3/3/1989 the High court directed status quo to be maintained as regards Flat No. F-305 and Flat No. C-306. When Shri Dahiya came to know of it he applied for intervention claiming that in pursuance of the High court's order an order had been made in his favour in respect of Flat No. F-305. The application was decided on 14/11/1989 and AWHO was directed to hand over possession to Shri Dahiya of Flat No. F-305. This direction was challenged by Shri Gupta in Civil No. 4880 of 1991. This appeal came to be disposed of on 9/12/1991 by this court by an order which is extracted below: "Special leave granted. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and especially in view of the offer made by the Society, we direct that Flat No. C-306, Som Vihar, New Delhi, shall be kept reserved and if the appellant succeeds in the proceedings before the High court the same shall be allotted to him. This will, however, be subject to the deposit of the requisite amount by the appellant. Appeal is accordingly disposed of. There will be no order as to costs. The High court is requested to dispose of the matter pending before it within three months from now. "when Shri Jetley and Shri Dahiya came to know of the order, they filed application for recall of the order whereas Shri Gupta has filed an application for taking proceedings in contempt against the officers of the AWHO.;