New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Directorate of Estates (DoE) and sought their reply on a plea seeking damages related to a property forfeiture proceedings initiated during the National Emergency.
Rajiv, Deepak and Radhika Sarin, the children of 94 years old woman Veera Sarin, have filed the suit against DoE and the Competent Authority, in relation to their KG Marg property which was taken over by the Central Government.
The suit has been filed by children of 94-year-old woman Veera Sarin, who recently approached the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional the national emergency imposed by the Congress government in 1975. They submitted before the court that they are the owners of the property which was forfeited by the authorities under (SAFEMA) in 1998 and it was leased out to DoE prior to forfeiture. The DoE stopped paying rent to the plaintiffs admittedly from May 1, 1999.
They sought from the Central Government damages of Rs 2.20 crore, Rs 9.89 lakh, Rs 43.5 lakh for loss of market rent, outstanding maintenance charges and outstanding property tax respectively in relation to illegal use and occupation of a property in Ansal Bhawan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg from May 1999 to July 2020.
The Counsel for Plaintiffs submitted that in the month of July 1975, a preventive detention order was passed by the Delhi Government against plaintiffs’ father under the provisions of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act and show cause notices were also issued to him. He filed various replies to the notices but the competent authority passed an order resulting in forfeiture of the property.
The counsel requested to court that the forfeiture was set aside and quashed by the Delhi High Court in December 2014 and despite several attempts by Sarins, the authorities were not releasing the property to them and pursuant to the June 2020 order of the high court, Sarins got the possession of the property in July 2020.
The Counsel submitted that by order dated July 28, 2020 the court directed Defendant No. 1 (DoE) to pay arrears of rent as per the last paid rent to the plaintiffs at the rate of Rs 20,500 per month from May 1, 1999 to July 2, 2020 and further granted liberty to the plaintiffs to claim further amounts towards market rent, mesne profits, compensation and interest by instituting appropriate proceedings.
Delhi High Court Justice Manoj Kumar Ohari today after hearing the suit issued summons to DoE, Ministry of Labour and Employment and Competent Authority under Smugglers And Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of property) Act (SAFEMA) and asked them to file the reply of the suit before the Joint Registrar on February 26 for completion of pleadings, service of summons and admission/denial of documents and listed the matter for hearing on April 26.
