Bailout for delicensed projects likely in Haryana

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 25

In the light of the Punjab and Haryana High Court order on the Ambience Mall in Gurugram, a bailout plan may be in the offing for 69 projects that fall in the similar “unauthorised” category.

The mall had come up on a delicensed portion of over 18 acres originally meant for a residential complex that was relicensed afresh.

Sources said the government could bring a Bill or an amendment in the monsoon session of the Assembly on regularising delicensed and relicensed projects which do not have any third-party interests. This means the project should not have changed hands. While the government is pushing for bringing it during the session, there is likelihood of it being brought as an ordinance at

a later stage if it is not ready yet or the two session sittings are further reduced to one sitting due to Covid.

Though the government has been maintaining that despite the Haryana Urban (Regulation and Development) Act not making any provision for delicensing, the General Clauses Act authorises it to undo what it can do, implying that the government can delicense a project partially or completely as well. “While the law does not permit it in black and white, it does not prohibit it either,” a source said.

However, to cover the grey area on the matter of delicensing and bailing out various projects that may find themselves at the receiving end from the courts in view of the Ambience mall order, legal experts are known to have suggested to the government to bring a Bill or an amendment spelling out clearly the ambiguity around its powers on delicensing.

A total of 2,000 licences were issued, of which 69 projects fall in the category of those delicensed and relicensed by the successive governments. A majority of the projects were reportedly delicensed and relicensed before 2014 and 18 after 2014 when the BJP formed the government in the state.

What the Law says…

• Though the govt has been maintaining that despite the Haryana Urban (Regulation and Development) Act not making any provision for delicensing, the General Clauses Act authorises it to undo what it can do, implying that the govt can delicense a project partially or completely as well
• “While the law does not permit it in black and white, it does not prohibit it either,” a source said