Delhi HC to hear Indian polo group’s plea over eviction on July 12

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday listed for hearing on August 12 the Indian Polo Association’s petition against a sessions court’s decision refusing to stay the Centre’s May 20 order evicting it from the 15.20-acre Jaipur Polo Ground here.

Hearing in the matter was deferred before Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar as lawyers were abstaining from work in view of the Delhi High Court’s full court favouring the enhancement of pecuniary jurisdiction or financial limit of district courts here from `2 crore to `10 crore. Counsel for the petitioner association as well as the central Government urged the court to give an early date.

Justice Shankar said he was willing to hear the petition on Tuesday but deferred the hearing on a request by the lawyers. “Lawyers are abstaining from work. At request, renotify on August 12,” the bench said. The petitioner’s senior counsel requested the bench to take up the matter in July itself, stating that the sessions court was scheduled to hear the case on July 23. Justice Shankar, however, responded, “You can always inform them. Matter was kept at a short date. We didn’t know this is likely to happen.”

“We arrange our affairs in a manner that we are able to take up a certain number of matters. When something like this happens, all the planning that goes behind it goes awry,” the judge added.

In its petition, the Indian Polo Association has assailed a June 18 order of the sessions court, which acts as the appellate authority under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, rejecting its interim application seeking restoration of possession of the Jaipur Polo Ground, stay of enforcement and execution of the May 20 eviction order and a restraint against demolition, uprooting, digging, disturbing or altering the Jaipur Polo Ground. The petition has stated that the rejection of the petitioner’s interim application of stay on eviction notice was ex facie erroneous.

Before the high court, the petitioner has also raised concerns over potential destruction and damage to the polo turf due to digging.

Earlier, the central Government lawyer assured that no such alteration would happen on the polo ground at this stage, as authorities were only demarcating the premises.

Officials of the Land and Development Office on June 13 took physical possession of the Jaipur Polo Ground in the Race Course area of the national capital.

The petition has stated that authorities have already taken possession of the Jaipur Polo Ground during pendency of the appeal and commenced “irreversible activities” like digging, uprooting and other physical alterations of the land and turf, which would render the matter infructuous.

“The Jaipur Polo Ground is a specialised sporting facility and not ordinary vacant land. Its turf requires continuous mowing, irrigation, levelling, aeration, rolling, grass-cover management, weed control and upkeep by trained ground staff,” the plea had stated.

“Any excavation, digging, construction activity, disruption of irrigation, uprooting of grass cover, compaction by heavy machinery, or levelling without turf supervision will cause irreversible damage to the ground, permanently impair the Premises as a polo ground and defeat the subject matter of the Appeal,” the plea stated.

The Centre has sought to take over the land occupied by the polo ground and nearby establishments, including the iconic Delhi Gymkhana Club, for public purposes.