Chennai: The Madras high court on Thursday declined to vacate its earlier interim order restraining the registration authorities from registering any sale deed in respect of any plot on unauthorized lay outs or water bodies or any flat/building constructed on such places in the state. On Thursday, when the counsel for All India Real Estate Businessmen Welfare Association, by its president K. Kulasekaran, made a mention before the bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan to implead the association as a party-respondent in the PIL and to vacate its order dated September 9 last, the bench declined to do so. The bench directed the counsel to file a formal petition, which will be tagged along with the main petition.
According to petitioner association, its members were making layouts only on dry lands and selling to aspirants. As on date, there was no provision in the Tamil Nadu Registration Act to refuse to register the documents. Insertion of Sec.22-A to the Act in 1994, which stipulated certain terms and conditions for registration of properties, had already been set aside by a division bench of the high court and upheld by the SC, petitioner pointed out.
Association members had developed a number of layouts and sold substantial number of plots in each lay-out. The remaining plots were yet to be sold even though they had received advances from the prospective purchasers. In view of the September 9 order, they were not able to sell the plots to third parties and in that process, the remaining plots was considered to be a plot which cannot be used for any purpose. Having invested substantial amount, petitioners were not able to get back their investment, if not the profit. If the petitioner association was not impleaded as a party-respondent in the PIL filed by advocate ‘Elephant’ K. Rajendran, the same would cause irreparable loss and damages which cannot be retrieved, petitioner contended.
