HC stays Haryana’s stilt-plus-four floors policy

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday stayed the operation of the Haryana Government’s ‘stilt-plus-four floors’ policy for residential plots, observing that the State appears to have put public safety at risk merely to earn more revenue.

The interim order came on a petition challenging the July 2, 2024, order issued by the additional chief secretary of the town and country planning department. The order had permitted construction of ‘stilt-plus-four floors’ on residential plots, raising the earlier cap of ‘stilt-plus-three floors’. It had also introduced a composition mechanism even in cases where building plans had not been approved.

The order was passed by a division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry.

“It appears that the State of Haryana, merely to earn more revenue, has put the safety and security of members of the general public at stake,” the court observed. The bench also said the State and its functionaries had ignored the desperate shortage of infrastructure in Gurugram while implementing the policy.

“State and its functionaries turning a Nelson’s eye towards the desperate shortage of infrastructural requirements in Gurugram city have given a go by to the all-important aspect of conducting ‘Infrastructure Capacity Audit’ before implementing the stilt + 4 policy. It thus seems that the State has abdicated its constitutional duty of ensuring a clean and healthy urban environment for the citizens of Gurugram,” the order read.

The court said that as the arguments in the matter were taking time to conclude, it was appropriate at this stage to restrain the State from implementing the policy.

“Since the arguments are taking long time to conclude for reasons attributed to the counsel for the rival parties, it is deemed appropriate by this Court, at this stage, without commenting on the validity of the impugned order/notification dated 02.07.2024, to restrain the State from going ahead with the ‘stilt + 4 floor policy’ for the residential plots and to stay the effect and operation of the impugned order/notification (Annexure P-6) for the time being, till the next date of hearing,” the order said.

During final arguments on January 1, the court took note of photographs submitted by the petitioner, which prima facie showed that internal roads in Sector 28, DLF Phase-I, Gurugram were as narrow as 12 to 15 feet.

The court then constituted a commission comprising the additional advocate general of Haryana or his nominee, counsel for the petitioner and the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, Gurugram, to carry out a physical inspection of the area and examine the prescribed width of internal roads and the actual width available for traffic.

According to the inspection report, the prescribed width of the internal roads in Sector 28, DLF Phase-I, Gurugram is either 10 metres or 12 metres — measured from the boundary wall of one private plot to the boundary wall of the plot opposite.

However, the motorable space available for vehicles and pedestrians was found to be only between 3.9 metres and 4.8 metres.

The court noted that this shrinkage was due to multiple factors, including lack of adequate sanitation and sewerage infrastructure, overpopulation, defective town planning, inadequate garbage disposal, blocking of aquifers due to indiscriminate paving of roads and rampant construction activities, which prevent groundwater recharge.

Counsel for the petitioner also submitted that while issuing the July 2, 2024, order, the government should have considered the report of an expert committee on the ‘stilt-plus-four floors’ policy.

The committee, chaired by Haryana Pollution Control Board Chairman P Raghavendra Rao, had recommended that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for conducting an ‘Infrastructure Capacity Audit’ of the block, sector, area or colony should be prepared before implementing such a policy.

The court noted that the committee had expressed concern that, in the absence of adequate infrastructure, increasing the number of floors would place additional pressure on Gurugram’s already strained civic systems.

It said that the city’s infrastructure — including sewage, drainage and sewage treatment plants — was already under stress, while traffic congestion, overcrowded roads and flooding in low-lying areas had become common in Gurugram.