Ex-Bar Council of Delhi chairman urges DDA to amend Master Plan 2021

A former Bar Council of Delhi chairman has urged the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to amend its Master Plan 2021 to exclude "legal profession" from the category of "commercial activities". In a letter written to the DDA commissioner-cum-secretary, K C Mittal, a lawyer, has said the "legal profession" is not a commercial activity and equating it with a retail shop under Master Plan 2021 for levying the annual mixed-use charges and other purposes is, on the face of it, "unsustainable". "The legal profession is not a commercial activity and being a noble profession, it cannot be equated with a commercial activity or be included within the meaning of mixed use. This is totally fallacious and erroneous on the face of it," Mittal has written in the letter. He has added that any building, where professional activities are carried out by legal professionals, cannot be termed a "business building" and that the activity cannot be described as "business/commercial". "The charges, on the face of it, are erroneous since the professional activity is not equivalent to a retail shop or any commercial establishment," Mittal has written. He has also pointed out that according to Master Plan 2021 and a notification issued on June 22, 2007, the "legal profession" has been equated with "retail shops" for the purpose of levying the annual mixed-use charges.