HC: Policy change can’t deny homebuyers promised flat sale
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has held that a later change in government land policy cannot be used to deny homebuyers an outright sale promised under an earlier housing scheme.
The bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta directed the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) to execute and register a sale deed for a flat and garage at the Purba Housing Complex in Rajdanga, Kasba within 12 weeks while granting liberty to the petitioners to seek compensation for delay and harassment, if so advised.
The writ petition was filed by two allottees in relation to one residential flat and a semi-covered garage in the Purba Housing Complex, a KMDA project comprising 361 apartments. The petitioners had applied under a brochure offering flats on outright sale and were allotted the apartment after due process.
The court noted that the petitioners paid the entire consideration within the stipulated time and were handed possession of the flat in 2008. The possession certificate issued by KMDA stated that the apartment would be transferred on a freehold basis after completion of formalities. The petitioners have remained in possession since then and have been paying municipal property taxes. A garage was later allotted to them, for which full payment was made and possession handed over.
The dispute arose in 2020 when KMDA asked the petitioners to collect a draft lease deed instead of executing a sale deed, relying on a 2012 state land allotment policy mandating long-term leases for government land. KMDA contended that it no longer had authority to convey property by outright sale.
The court rejected this stand, holding that the land policy came into force years after the petitioners’ rights had crystallised through allotment, full payment and delivery of possession. The court observed that the policy did not disclose any intention of retrospective operation and could not be applied to unsettle vested rights. The court also took note that KMDA had executed sale deeds in favour of several other allottees of the same housing complex even after the 2012 policy was issued. Holding KMDA’s action unsustainable, the court reiterated that executive policies operate prospectively unless expressly stated otherwise.
