Sainik Farms: HC stops short of ordering CBI probe

The Delhi High Court today stopped short of ordering a CBI probe into unauthorised construction in Sainik Farms after a senior law officer said the municipal corporation is willing to give names of all its "delinquent officials" who allowed the activity to go on against judicial orders.
A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar did not order a CBI probe after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for SDMC, said in two weeks it will furnish names of all the officials, including the 'beldaars', who were responsible for the illegal activity.
The bench also questioned the Centre whether it was "sitting on the scheme" forwarded by the Delhi government for regularising the posh south Delhi colony and asked both the governments to inform the court about the status of the proposal before the next date of hearing on February 22.

During the proceedings, the bench said it was considering handing over the probe to CBI as the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had not taken any action against its errant officials.
However, ASG Jain said measures were being taken by the corporation and placed before the bench a roadmap of the steps that the civic body proposed to take to identify and penalise the officials who permitted illegal construction to go on.
After perusing the "roadmap", the bench remarked that the the SDMC was using the office of ASG to "buy more time". The court also said that it "did not see any measures" that the corporation was taking.

The bench asked as to "why the SDMC was averse to a CBI probe" and said the preliminary enquiry of the agency can go side by side with the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the civic body.

"We want to know who are the (SDMC) officials involved and we want them to go to jail," it said, added that it was contemplating contempt proceedings for non-compliance of its 2001 order prohibiting any manner of construction or repair work in the colony.
It also said, "Just because people of Sainik Farms are rich, why should we differentiate between them and those in Neb Sarai (where CBI is probing unauthorised construction)?" and added, "Why should honest people pay a premium for buying land, while people in Sainik Farms get it for a song? Go and penalise them and collect your money."

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Paardarshita and some individuals alleging illegal construction in Sainik Farms.