NDMC's non compliance with order to deposit 50% of compensation awarded to land owners: Top Court asks Delhi High Court to consider awarding penal interest

Referring to non-compliance of its previous order made on 15th July, 2019, requiring the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to deposit 50% of the enhanced amount of compensation awarded to land-owners within a period of three months, the top Court on Monday, ordered that awarding of penal interest could be considered by the High Court while deciding the appeals.

The court further directed the High Court to take note of unnecessary delay on the part of NDMC and to provide remedial measures, particularly to mitigate the hardship of the persons entitled to receive the amount of compensation.

At the outset, a bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose remarked,

"It is difficult to appreciate that compliance of order passed by this Court way back on 15.07.2019, requiring the appellant-corporation to deposit 50% of the enhanced amount of compensation within a period of three months, is yet to be carried out....This Court had, twice over, enlarged the time for compliance."

The bench was told that NDMC chose to prepare a single Demand Draft, purportedly of the total of the amount payable in relation to all the cases.

"Such a deposit was not accepted by the Registry of the High Court of Delhi while requiring the appellant-corporation to submit separate Demand Drafts pertaining to each individual case. Now, it is stated that such Demand Drafts have been prepared on 24.01.2022 and their validity would be expiring on 23.04.2022. In this regard too, the applications seeking further enlargement of time have been moved in this Court only on 01.04.2022....", further noted the Court.

The reasons and factors sought to be stated in the application seeking more time to deposit the said amount can only be said to be of perfunctory and causal approach on the part of NDMC and sheer apathy of its officers, where enlargement of time for compliance is taken for granted, the Top Court said.

Thus, while providing for further enlargement of time, the High Court was directed to take action.

"Subject to the above, time for depositing the amount is enlarged while providing that the Demand Drafts said to have been prepared on 24.01.2022 may be accepted by the Registry of the High Court of Delhi and while immediately putting the amount in interest bearing FDRs, the claimants may be notified to seek withdrawal...", ordered the Court.

Case Title: NORTH DELHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION vs KISHORI MAL JOSHI (D) THR. LRS. & ANR.