Uttarakhand High Court
WPMS/114/2023 on 11 January, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND
AT NAINITAL
HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAYA KUMAR MISHRA
11th JANUARY, 2023
Writ Petition (MS) No. 114 of 2023
Between:
Stella Hotels and Resorts Limited .......... Appellant
and
Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority and Another
......Respondent
Mr. Aditya Pratap Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner.
Mr. Rahul Consul, learned counsel for respondent nos. 1 and 2.
Upon hearing the learned counsel for the parties, this
Court made the following judgment:
Sri Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, J.
By filing of this writ application the
petitioner has prayed for the following relief:
"Writ, order or direction in the nature of
mandamus directing the respondents to
consider the application/representation of the
petitioner for extension of time in regard to the
construction of his hotel/resort in Mussoorie,
map of which was sanctioned by the
respondents with its file number 872/1990-91
dated 08.05.1991 now known as Stella Estate."
2. Facts of the case are that, petitioner
received a sanctioned letter from the respondents in
the year 1990-91, wherein he was communicated
that the map submitted by him was approved by the
Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority
(hereinafter referred to as MDDA for brevity) for the
purpose of construction of the hotel in Mussoorie.
Writ petition (Civil) No. 8209 and 8821 of 1983 was
filed before the Hon'ble Supreme Court that
construction is going on in forest area in Doon Valley
in the District of Dehradun. Some orders were passed
by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and finally the matters
were disposed of and were transferred to this Court.
Thereafter, the Division Bench of this Court heard the
matter and passed the following order on 06.01.2015
in WPPIL No. 31 of 2009 (Old No. 749 of 1995):-
"The matter is about 20 years old, and in our
view it would not be possible for the High Court
to consider each and every case independently
and then pass order on separate applications,
what we are proposing to do is that we are
directing the MDDA to consider the application
of each and every individual independently on
merits. If permission or post facto sanction is
required, MDDA will writ to the MOEF, and if
such permission is granted by the MOEF, MDDA
will consider the application of each individual
on its own merits for sanction in the forest
area."
3. In that view of the matter, the petitioner
could not carry out further construction of his hotel
and now he prays for extension of the order dated
08.05.1991, sanctioning the map in favour of the
petitioner. Learned counsel for the respondents Mr.
Rahul Consul would submit that he has been
instructed that as per the judgment passed by the
Hon'ble Supreme Court, in various cases, no
construction was carried out over a piece of land
which is recorded as a forest.
4. The petitioner claims that the land on which
he intends to carry out a construction of a hotel is not
a part of reserve forest or any other kind of forest.
Since, it cannot be determined whether the land in
question is a forest area or not in a writ petition, the
learned counsel for the MDDA would submit that the
petitioner be directed to file appropriate documents
before the Secretary, MDDA with a prayer to
reconsider the matter and it will be reconsidered on
merits.
5. In that view of the matter, the writ petition
is disposed of giving liberty to the petitioner to
appear before the Secretary, MDDA within a period of
ten days, henc; and produce relevant documents in
support of his claim, as claimed in the writ petition,
by annexing the certified copy of this order and copy
of the brief along with other supporting documents.
On such an event, the Secretary, MDDA shall consider
the matter and in the light of the observations made
by the Division Bench of this Court in the aforesaid
WPPIL, as quoted above, shall consider whether
permission can be extended or not, within a period of
30 days from the date of production of certified copy
of this order along with other relevant documents
after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to
the petitioner.
(Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, J.)
11.01.2023
Pooja
