In Contempt Petitions filed by aggrieved homebuyers against Shri Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj (D.M., Gautam Budh Nagar), Hon'ble Allahabad High Court took a serious note against the D.M. for willful disobedience of the High Court's order/direction to execute the Recovery Certificate issued by UP RERA in a time-bound manner, and has thus directed the D.M. to appear in person before the Court in the pending contempt proceedings.
The matter pertains to the execution of a Recovery Certificate issued by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP RERA). The said execution had to be carried out by the District Magistrate, Gautam Nagar, who was responsible to recover the amount due to the allottee from the developer/promoter as arrears of land revenue. However, even after several months had passed since the issuance of the aforesaid Recovery Certificate, but no recovery was made by the District Magistrate, who was sitting tight over the recovery process and had failed to carry out the same efficiently, in violation of the mandates laid down under the RERA Act, 2016. Thus, District Magistrate was bound by law to recover the amount as arrears of land revenue and he was acting unlawfully by not executing the Recovery Certificate issued by the UP RERA.
Due to the said deliberate inaction adopted by the District Magistrate, the aggrieved allottee filed a Writ Petition before Hon’ble Allahabad High Court, wherein the direction was issued to District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar to execute the Recovery Certificate dated to its logical end, as expeditiously as possible, preferably, within a period of two months from the date of receipt of the copy of the said order.
However, even after the passage of several months from the date of the said order passed by the Hon’ble Allahabad High Court in the said Writ Petition, no action, whatsoever, was taken by the District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar in order to execute the Recovery Certificate issued by UP RERA. Thus, the District Magistrate completely failed to comply with the said order passed by the Hon'ble Allahabad High Court.
Ultimately, left with no choice, the aggrieved homebuyer filed a Contempt Petition before Allahabad High Court, requesting the Court to summon the District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar in person and further to initiate contempt proceedings against him under the Contempt of Courts Act for his willful disobedience to the order passed by this Hon’ble Court in Writ Petition.
Hon'ble Allahabad High Court after hearing the said Contempt Petition found that a prima facie of contempt is made out and issued notice to the District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, and further directed him to appear in person and explain as to why the contempt proceedings may not be initiated against him for the alleged violation of the judgement and order of Writ Court.
(The Writ Petition, as well as Contempt Petition on behalf of the Allottee, were filed and argued by S&D Legal Associates in association with its Partners and Associates based in Prayagraj)
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