Amraj Singh vs State of Haryana

V.K. Bali, J. (Oral)

Amraj Singh through present petition filed by him under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeks quashing of FIR No. 73 dated 6.3.1990 under Section 10 of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act) as also further proceedings arising thereof.

The core of offence alleged against the petitioner is that be, being the attorney of Surjit Singh sold 1320 sq. yards of land along with one Prem Singh who owned total area of 6 kanals 10 marlas in village Bakfi, District Karnal and subdivided the land into plots for residential/commercial/industrial purposes without obtaining licence from the Director, Town & Country Planning, Haryana, Chandigarh, as provided under Section 4 of the Act and, thus, violated provisions of Section 7(1) of the Act.

From the records of the case it is clear that insofar as petitioner is concerned, he being attorney of Surjit Singh sold only 440 sq. yards of land. Thus, insofar as petitioner is concerned, land sold by him is less than 1000 so yards It is the sale of 1000 sq. yards or more which concededly, is punishable under Section 10 of the Act. That apart, petitioner was only an attorney and not the owner.

Learned counsel for the respondentState, however, contends that inasmuch as it is the sale of land measuring more than 1000 sq. yards, it shall not make any difference that the different owners owned less than 1000 sq. yards and, thus, the petitioner would be liable for the offence in question.

This argument of learned counsel for the respondent is devoid of merit. In fact, the learned State counsel is unable to show any provision in the Act where joint sale by more than one owner of an area which in all may be more than 1000 sq. yards but each individual owner owned less than that might be prohibited. Learned counsel for the respondent had to concede that there being no such provision, petitioner could not be punished under Section 10 of the act. That being so, FIR as, also all subsequent proceedings taken against the petitioner are quashed.

This petition is allowed accordingly.