GURUGRAM: Around 500 house owners in the city's older HSVP sectors have been served notices for running commercial activity from residential plots or for building beyond their sanctioned plans, officials of the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) said on Monday.
The drive covers Sectors 1 to 57, the part of Gurugram that HSVP developed and still administers. Two estate offices split the work. Estate Office 1 looks after Sectors 1 to 23, and Estate Office 2 handles Sectors 24 to 57. Both have stepped up field surveys over the past few weeks.
Officials said the push picked up after the Supreme Court's order of 22 September on commercial use of residential properties. The court told the authorities concerned to act under their own laws and file a compliance report by 23 November, which gives the estate offices a little under seven weeks.
Estate Office 1 has issued about 100 notices under Section 17(3) of the Haryana Urban Development Authority Act, 1977, for business activity in homes. In 34 of these cases the matter has moved to Section 17(4). It has also served around 55 notices on owners of houses under construction for not following approved building plans.
In Sectors 24 to 57, a senior official said, between 350 and 400 owners had received notices for commercial use as of about two weeks ago. The survey there is still running, and officials expect the count to go up.
The action is not new for some owners. Departmental records show Estate Office 1 had already started plot resumption proceedings in four or five cases of repeated violation before this round began.
How the Section 17 process works
A Section 17(3) notice is the first step. The owner gets time to reply and explain the use of the property. If HSVP is not satisfied with the reply, it issues a Section 17(4) notice, gives the owner a hearing and directs that the building be restored to the use and plan for which it was sanctioned.
If the violation continues after that, the estate office can cancel the occupation certificate. It can then ask the departments concerned to cut water, sewer and electricity connections. In persistent cases HSVP can move to resume the plot, which means taking it back.
There is a paperwork cost too. Properties can be marked as cases of misuse on the HSVP property portal, and officials said that entry can hold up a sale, transfer or other transactions until it is cleared. Owners can appeal against an estate officer's order before the HSVP Administrator.
Section 17 of the 1977 Act deals with breach of the conditions on which HSVP plots were allotted, and resumption is the heaviest penalty it allows. Officials said the present round is not only about commercial use. Construction that goes beyond the approved plan, on houses still under construction in particular, is also being checked during the surveys.
In the older sectors, ground floors of houses let out as clinics, coaching centres, offices or small shops are a common sight. For owners, the notice sets a clock running, and the reply filed at the 17(3) stage is the first chance to put their side on record before a hearing.
A similar tightening is visible in the private licensed colonies. The town and country planning department recently ordered closer monitoring of vacant plots in DLF Phase 3 after misuse complaints, and served show-cause notices in two cases.
HSVP has also been changing how property deals in its sectors are recorded. An authorised HSVP representative now has to be present at the registration of properties sold directly by the authority, as Dalimss reported in its story on the new registration rule.
Owners who have received a notice can check its details and their property record with the estate office that issued it. Officials said the surveys are continuing and the number of cases is expected to rise before the compliance report goes to the Supreme Court in November.
