Kamal Kumar vs Union Territory and Another

Satish Kumar Mittal, J.—The petitioner has filed the instant writ petition seeking direction to the respondents to transfer the property bearing House No. 3013, Sector 21-D, Chandigarh in his favour. The said property was originally acquired by the father of the petitioner, namely, K. Ragho Ram by a registered Conveyance Deed. After purchasing the said property, the father of the petitioner got constructed a house on the same and started living there along with his family. On 24.7.1987, the father of the petitioner had expired, but before his death he had executed a Will dated 3.4.1981 in favour of the petitioner. The said Will was later on got registered before the Sub-Registrar on 20.5.1981. On the basis of the said registered Will, the petitioner moved an application before the respondents to transfer the said property in his name. When the said application was not considered and decided, the petitioner approached this Court seeking the aforesaid direction. During the course of hearing, it was realized that the Chandigarh Administration has not formulated any proper policy with regard to transfer of the property in favour of the legal heirs or the legatee of the allottee after his death. During the course of hearing, learned counsel for the respondents was directed to formulate a reasonable policy in this regard. Ultimately, learned counsel for the respondents has placed on record the Draft Policy/Guidelines framed by the Chandigarh Administration regarding transfer of immovable property to the legal heirs/legatee after death of the allottee/transferee. The said Policy has been drafted in light of the Policy earlier framed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority for such cases, which was approved by this Court vide order dated April 30, 2013 passed in C.W.P. No. 23705 of 2011 (Vandana Arora v. Chief Administrator, H.U.D.A. and another 1).

The Draft Policy framed by the Chandigarh Administration has been placed on record, which reads as under:-

Draft policy regarding transfer of immovable property to the legal-heirs/legatee after death of the allottee/transferee. - In pursuance to ongoing proceedings before the Hon''ble Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Estate Office in order to simplify the procedure regarding transfer of immovable properties in Union Territory, Chandigarh in the name of legal-heirs/legatee(s) after death of the allottee/transferee, has proposed the following procedure for all the three categories:-

Transfer in the case of Intestate Death;

Transfer on the basis of ''Registered Will'';

Transfer on the basis of ''Un-registered Will''.

Transfer in the case of Intestate Death:

On receipt of the application for transfer of ownership in case of death of the allottee/transferee, the Estate Officer, UT, Chandigarh shall issue a public notice at the cost of the applicant(s) within 30 days of the receipt of the request in two leading newspapers - one in Hindi and other in English, having wide circulation in the area giving full particulars of the property and the applicant(s), who have applied for transfer of ownership rights. The public notice should clearly state that if any legal heir(s) is/are having any objection against the transfer of ownership, the objector(s) can submit the objection to the Estate Officer in writing along with supporting documents within one month of the publication of the notice and if no objection is received within 30 days of the publication of the notice in the aforesaid manner, then the ownership shall be transferred in the records of Estate Office subject to fulfillment of other conditions regarding submission of the death certificate, affidavit, indemnity bond and payment of all outstanding dues. In case of dispute amongst the legal heirs, the property will be transferred in the names of all the legal heirs. However, they shall not be allowed to alienate the property till they get their inter se dispute settled through the competent court of jurisdiction.

Transfer on the basis of ''Registered Will''. On receipt of the application for mutating the property in the name of the holder of the ''Registered Will'', the Estate Officer, UT, Chandigarh shall issue a public notice at the cost of the applicant(s) within 30 days of the receipt of the request in two newspapers - one in English and other in Hindi, having wide circulation in the area, giving particulars of the property and the applicant(s), who have applied for transfer of ownership rights. The public notice should clearly state that if any legal heirs is/are having any objection against the transfer of ownership, the objector(s) can submit the objection to the Estate Officer in writing along with supporting documents within one month of the publication of the notice and if no objection is received within 30 days of the publication of the notice in the aforesaid manner, then the property shall be transferred in the name of the holder of the ''Registered Will'' in the records of Estate Office subject to the fulfillment of other conditions regarding submission of the death certificate, affidavit, indemnity bond etc. If any objection is received, then the objector should be asked to get the dispute settled from the competent court of jurisdiction regarding the genuineness of the ''Will'' but during the pendency of the dispute, the ownership shall be transferred in the name of the holder of the ''Registered Will'' subject to the final outcome of the case subject to the fulfillment of other conditions regarding submission of the death certificate, affidavit, indemnity bond and payment of all outstanding dues.

Transfer on the basis of ''Un-registered Will''.

On receipt of the application for mutating the ownership in the name of the holder of the ''Un-registered Will'', the Estate Officer, UT, Chandigarh shall issue a public notice at the cost of the applicant(s) within 30 days of the receipt of the request in two newspapers - one in English and other in Hindi, having wide circulation in the area, giving particulars of the property and the applicant(s), who have applied for transfer of ownership rights. The public notice should clearly state that if any legal heirs is/are having any objection against the transfer of ownership, the objector(s) can submit the objection to the Estate Officer in writing along with supporting documents within one month of the publication of the notice and if no objection is received within 30 days of the publication of the notice in the aforesaid manner, then the ownership shall be transferred in the records of Estate Office subject to the fulfillment of other conditions regarding submission of the death certificate, affidavit, indemnity bond and payment of all outstanding dues. If any objection is received and the Estate Officer is not satisfied regarding the genuineness of the ''Unregistered Will'', then the Estate Officer shall transfer the property on the basis of natural succession subject to the final outcome of the dispute regarding the genuineness of the ''Unregistered Will''.

Transfer on the basis of Sale Deed - If the sale deed has been executed after obtaining ''No Objection Certificate'' from Estate Office, UT, Chandigarh or after execution of the Conveyance Deed in favour of allottee, the transfer shall be allowed by the Estate Officer. Otherwise, same procedure as mentioned at Serial Number 2 and 3 shall be followed.

We have perused the aforesaid Draft Policy and found the same quite reasonable. Therefore, we approve the said Draft Policy to be notified by the Chandigarh Administration, subject to requirement of further modification in case of any hardship shown in future.

Learned counsel for the respondents-Chandigarh Administration states that this Draft Policy will be notified within one month and all the pending applications with regard to transfer of the plot/house will be dealt with in accordance with the said Policy, expeditiously. We further direct that in case any application for transfer of the plot or house is made by any person, it should be finally decided according to the said Policy, expeditiously, preferably within a period of three months from the date of receipt of such application. As far as the present writ petition is concerned, it has been stated by the learned counsel for the respondents that the plot in question has already been transferred in the name of the petitioner. Therefore, necessary relief has been granted to the petitioner.

In view of the aforesaid directions, the writ petition is disposed of.