Delhi HC asks Centre to take call on commission’s recommendation of excluding certain areas out of Lutyens

The bench was hearing a clutch of petitions by plot owners and residents who want to reconstruct or make changes to the existing buildings.

While setting the date of the next hearing on September 1, the court asked the Union ministry to file the affidavit informing it about the decision.

The petitioners submitted before the court that the commission had made the recommendations in 2016, but the same were returned by the ministry with a direction to make certain corrections. The commission prepared its fresh recommendations in August 2019, but they were never sent to the ministry.

The commission argued before the court that the fresh recommendations were not forwarded as the ministry had already made it clear before the court that it was not inclined to make any changes to the LBZ guidelines.

“The court is unable to appreciate this stand of the commission. Be that as it may, in view of the admitted position which emerges from the record that these recommendations, prepared by a statutory body, have not even been placed before the ministry, the commission is directed to forthwith forward the recommendations prepared by it to the ministry,” Justice Palli stated in the order.

LBZ refers to the Lutyens’ area where there are restrictions on construction. An exclusion of any area from this zone would mean they won’t come under those regulations.