RWA ‘misrepresents’ 1995 SC order on green area cover, lands in trouble

An accused in a criminal case moved the Delhi High Court last week for the issuance of directions to the Delhi Police not to arrest him, admitting that he would participate in the investigations against him.

The Delhi High Court bench of Justice Saurabh Banerjee, on April 8, 2026, disposed of the Criminal Writ Petition after he recorded his willingness to make himself available for investigations in Delhi.

The petitioner, fearing arrest, had approached the High Court with prayers for directions to the police to refrain from coercive action and to allow him to join the investigations through a virtual means. However, counsel for the petitioner subsequently assured the High Court that the petitioner, who resides in Singapore, will participate in the criminal investigation whenever required.

Before lodging the FIR, the police conducted a preliminary enquiry. They found that a prima facie case was made out under sections 318, 329, 324, and 61 of BNS 2023, related to the Shakti Cooperative Group Housing Society in Dwarka Sector 5 in southwest Delhi. 

The matter pertains to an FIR lodged by Delhi Police against one Vishal Taneja for misusing the Judgment of the Supreme Court and the Delhi Cooperative Society (DCS) Act and Rules to misappropriate the mandatory green area of the park by creating a passage for the entry and exit of vehicles.

The accused in the FIR, Vishal Taneja, presently posted in Singapore, was President of Shakti CGHS from 2016 to 2021.

While acting as President, Taneja had used a Judgment of the Supreme Court in the RWA Society’s governing council meeting to convert and destroy the mandatory green area of the park into a passage for stilt parking, which was allotted/sold for Rs Two lakh to its members/residents.

Rather, in the notice for allotment of stilt dated July 12, 2021, it was assured to the member that the stilt offered is technically fit and has reasonable access. A few members of society protested against it. Still, Taneja tactfully convinced the members with a different interpretation, arguing that the Supreme Court’s judgment empowers him to do so.

The members of society believed Taneja, and the common area of society was sold under the guise of stilt parking, with passage through the park.

This vehicular movement through the park led to the park’s destruction. However, after some years, it was revealed that the Managing Committee, headed by Taneja, had misused the Supreme Court’s judgment.

By doing so, he had misled, misguided, and cheated members and residents of society, and had committed a serious breach of their trust. The Judgement used by him actually prohibits the misuse of a mandatory open area, like a park, for any other purpose.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice BL Hansaria and Justice K Ramaswamy in the case of Dr GN Khajuria and Others vs Delhi Development Authority and Others had passed a Judgment against DDA on August 31, 1995.

In the said Judgment, the Supreme Court directed that an open area, such as a park, provided in the layout plan approved by the DDA, cannot be subsequently misused or misappropriated for any other purpose.

Shockingly, under the same interpretation of the judgment, the petitioner had destroyed the park and converted it into a stilt parking passage.

The matter came to the DDA’s notice, and a team of officials visited the society in October 2025 and warned the Managing Committee against such illegal alterations to the building and layout plans approved by the DDA. The DDA consequently issued a Show Cause Notice dated October 15, 2025, for violation of the Unified Building Bye-Laws, 2016, and the Master Plan, Delhi, 2021.

A special general body meeting was also held by the Society on October 12, 2025, at which the present president admitted the violations and, accordingly, assured DDA of compliance and restoration of the Park for residents, vide letter dated November 02, 2025.

However, the assurances and the letter remained mere paperwork and eyewash. One of the residents had filed a police complaint in the same matter, which culminated in the present FIR.

Many members of society had recently submitted a Joint Petition to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, who had issued an interim order dated March, 17, 2026, to the Society to refrain from illegal sale and purchase of stilt parking and restore and maintain the allotment of stilt parking done by the society in 2003. The order of RCS remains non-compliant to date by the incumbent President of RWA Society, Rajesh Verma.