Prayagraj Airport Corridor- Allahabad High Court Stays Demolition Of 100-Yr-Old Clinic, Restaurant In Special Sunday Hearing

In a Special Sunday Sitting, the Allahabad High Court stayed the proposed demolition of a hundred-year-old homeopathic clinic and restaurant for the purpose of constructing the Prayagraj airport corridor. 

The division bench of Justice Pritinker Diwaker, Justice Ashutosh Srivastava passed this order on a plea filed by Rakesh Gupta And 2 Others and has now posted the matter for further hearing on February 24. 

Essentially, the petitioners had moved the court seeking a writ of mandamus commanding the Prayagraj Development Authority, Prayagraj, not to interfere in the possession of the petitioners.

It was their contention that they are in possession over the plot and structure thereon in the shape of Homoeopathy Clinic and Eatery for the last more than 100 years. The Court was also informed that the said property is allotted a house number and is also assessed for the taxes.

It may be noted that under the order passed on Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea by the High Court, the authority is removing all the bottlenecks leading to various colonies on Kanpur Road and construction of dedicated corridor for the Prayagraj Airport

However, the petitioners submitted that PDA has already removed the encroachment by conducting a survey and that the property of the petitioners is in no way encroaching the road.

Further, it was argued that the High Court has also directed to postpone the demolition actions till February 28 by issuing a general order during the COVID period. The petitioners had moved a representation before the Authority on 27 December 2021, which had been rejected on 7 January 2022. However, according to the petitioners, the rejection order was never communicated to them.

On the other hand, the opposite party submitted that the petitioner had not challenged the order passed on their representation and that the petitioner has the alternative remedy of filing an appeal against the said order. Thus, it was argued that the petition was not maintainable.

The Prayagraj Development Authority and the State of Uttar Pradesh also opposed the writ petition on similar grounds.

Against the backdrop of these submissions, the Court noted that pursuant to the direction issued by the Court in a contempt plea, the Authorities had earlier identified various encroachments which were required to be demolished (including the property of the petitioners).

However, the Court further took into account the submissions of the petitioners that encroachments identified were removed by the Respondent Authorities. Therefore, in view of the contesting submissions, the court posted the matter as a fresh case on February 24, 2022, on which date, the Court ordered, the respondents will have to indicate in what manner the encroachment has been made by the petitioners which require demolition.

Case Title - Rakesh Gupta And 2 Others v. State Of U.P. Through Secretary , Ministry Of Urban Planning And Development And 3 Others

Counsel for Petitioner :- Saurabh Basu

Counsel for Respondent :- Daya Shankar Singh,Pawan Kumar Singh,Vineet Pandey

Click Here To Read/Download Order