Delhi HC Gives DDA "Last And Final" Chance To Fix Leasehold-To-Freehold Conversion Mess

The Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Vikas Mahajan was hearing a batch of connected matters arising from the DDA's conversion portal, which has been down since February 2026, leaving every pending application on hold. The order, delivered orally through a hybrid hearing, records the Court's frustration at the pace of the government's response in plain terms.

On the last date of hearing, July 30, the Court had directed a meeting between the Secretary, Department of Capital Development (MoHUA), the DDA, and any other concerned ministries.

That meeting took place on August 14, and its minutes were placed before the Court, but the Bench found they fell well short of what had been asked for: "A perusal of the said minutes would show that despite the previous order... spelling out the difficulties which are being faced due to non-processing of conversion applications from leasehold to freehold, no substantive decision has been taken by the MoHUA, DDA or L&DO."

The minutes themselves recorded discussion on three fronts, trimming duplicative documentation requirements, simplifying the conversion process to reduce procedural steps, and revisiting conversion charges that had not been revised "for a considerable time." Rather than resolving any of these, officials asked for time until December 31, 2026, to examine the issues "holistically."

A recurring question before the Court was whether a future policy, once finalised, could be applied retrospectively to applications already filed.

The Bench recorded that counsel for the DDA and MoHUA themselves conceded the answer was no; policies of this nature are ordinarily prospective, though exceptions may exist. Counsel for affected property owners relied on a 2012 ruling of a Single Judge of the same Court, in Neera Sharma v. Delhi Development Authority, where it was held that an applicant who had already deposited conversion charges with her application could not be made to pay a higher, later-revised rate: "It is only the applicant and not DDA who suffers on account of delay in processing the application since, her money is utilized by DDA whereas she is not able to use the land in respect of which change of land use is sought... there is neither any legal basis nor any justification on facts, for DDA charging from the petitioner, the conversion charges as prevalent in the year 2009-2010."

Applying that reasoning, the Court made clear that pending applications for which charges have already been collected must be processed under the policy that existed at the relevant time, not under whatever the DDA eventually finalises: "It is made clear that in respect of all the past applications which are pending for which payments have been received, the same would have to be processed as per the policy prevalent at the relevant point in time."

The scale of the backlog was recorded in the Court's earlier order of July 31: 1,373 applications remain pending, with Rs 155.06 crore already collected by the DDA from applicants whose files cannot move forward while the portal stays down.

The Court also flagged a narrower but telling gap; the meeting minutes noted that leaseholders remain free to transfer, gift, inherit or mortgage their properties through the established procedure even while conversion is on hold, yet none of the counsel present could tell the Court what that procedure actually was.

D. Thara, Secretary of the Department of Capital Development at MoHUA, did not join the hearing; DDA Vice Chairman N. Sarvana Kumar appeared and told the Court that the DDA and L&DO were in active consultation and would finalise their recommendations within two weeks. The Bench was unimpressed with the overall state of affairs: "The Court is clearly not satisfied with the progress made since the previous order and is also not satisfied with the Minutes which have been placed on record. In fact, the Minutes actually reveal that there is no clarity on any policy whatsoever neither on documentation nor on the conversion charges."

The Court equally directed about why that mattered beyond the paperwork: "Scores of citizens cannot be made to wait for conversion of their properties from leasehold to freehold in this manner."

The Court granted what it explicitly termed a last and final opportunity to the MoHUA, DDA and L&DO to place their final policy on record at least three days before the next hearing, listed for September 28, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. "Last and final opportunity is granted to the MoHUA, DDA and L&DO to place their final policy on record at least three days before the next date of hearing," it said.

The matter has been treated as part-heard, and the Court has directed that D. Thara and N. Sarvana Kumar personally join the proceedings on the next date.