Punjab and Haryana HC halts GMDA inspection of two Gurgaon flats until December hearing

Flat owner Sachin Bembi has secured a High Court order stopping GMDA from inspecting flats H-901 and H-1001 in a Gurgaon group-housing complex over alleged unauthorised alterations.

A division bench of Justice Vikas Bahl and Justice Divya Sharma restrained the district town planner (enforcement), GMDA, from conducting the inspection proposed for September 16. The matter will next be heard on December 15.

GMDA had complained that alterations in the two flats were unauthorised. Bembi challenged repeated inspection attempts, arguing that work inside a licensed colony falls under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, rather than GMDA’s statutory remit.

The petitioner told the court that district town-planning officers had already jointly inspected the premises. Their report recorded that he had a structural-stability certificate and the coloniser’s consent for internal modifications, but said the changes needed to be compounded by the director, town and country planning in Chandigarh under the applicable policy.

Bembi said he filed a compounding application on August 26. It had not been decided when the case came up before the court.