New Delhi
In the past few years, the Centre has repeatedly asked the Delhi government to take a call on the issue and has criticised it for its failure. A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Tejas Karia passed the direction after additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Centre, submitted that the MPD 2047 had been forwarded to the Centre for approval. Even otherwise, the master plan prepared by the DDA for 2047, which is pending consideration for approval by the Centre, would become operational only on its publication of notification,” the court said in its order. It added, “Accordingly, we direct that the exercise which was ordered to be conducted in our order dated 13.8.2025, shall be undertaken by the authorities concerned in a period of 2 months from today. In his petition filed in 2015, Dugar asserted that although the Centre and the Delhi government had implemented a policy for regularisation of unauthorised colonies, a discriminatory approach was allegedly adopted towards Sainik Farm area and they failed to take a call on the same. In April 2022, the court asked the Centre and the Delhi government to resolve the issue, saying that the current state of affairs was leading to perpetuation of gross illegality. In May 2023, the court then asked the Centre to expedite the decision and evolve a mechanism to enable the residents to carry out repairs and minor alterations etc.
“The preparation and approval of master plan, is a lengthy and humungous task and therefore what we understand at the moment is that finalisation of the plan by approval of the centre is likely to take some time.
The law officer said that a holistic view in the matter can only be formed by the government once the plan is approved by the Centre and published. The outcome of the said exercise shall be brought on record by means of an affidavit of the ministry of housing and urban affairs. In February 2026, the court asked the Centre’s counsel to seek instructions regarding the time within which it would formulate a policy regarding regularisation of the colony and had reprimanded the government for its “delay” in taking a call.
