New Delhi, Aug 18 The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed authorities to take a call on the issue of regularisation of South Delhi's Sainik Farm colony within two months.
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that although the "entire construction" in the colony was illegal, it is "high time" that a decision is taken by the authorities on its fate by coming up with a scheme.
"You can charge development charges. You can save certain nature of constructions. You can come out with a scheme where certain construction may be required to be demolished. Conduct a survey, prepare a plan. Try to save as much as can be saved," the court orally remarked.
"We are not concerned with what kind of decision you would take... (but) it is high time you decide. They should know their fate," it added.
The bench directed the authorities from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority and Municipal Corporation of Delhi to have a meeting on the issue in terms of its order dated August 13, 2025, and place the outcome before it in the form of an affidavit sworn by the competent authority of the ministry.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma asserted that a holistic view in the matter can be formed by the government only after the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) 2047, prepared by the DDA, is approved by the Centre and is duly published.
He added that the "fate" of the colony was known to its residents from its very inception.
"Therefore, we are not permitting them to undertake repairs. The entire construction is illegal. There is no layout plan of the colony. There is no building plan," retorted the bench.
Observing that the approval of the Centre to the MPD-2047 was likely to take some time, and it would come into operation only after it is published, the bench asked the authorities to hold a meeting on the issue of regularisation within two months.
"We direct that the exercise ordered to be conducted in August 13, 2025, order shall be undertaken by the authorities concerned within two months from today," the court directed, while listing the matter for further consideration in November.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions over regularisation of the Sainik Farm colony.
On August 13, 2025, it had asked the authorities to sit together to arrive at a decision on the fate of its inhabitants and make an endeavour to address the issues raised in these petitions.
Earlier, the Centre's counsel had said status quo had to be continued for Sainik Farm which was an "affluent colony" and neither repairs nor demolition activity could be permitted there.
The Centre, in an affidavit filed in the matter, has earlier said that it has taken a conscious decision to not get into the regularisation of illegal colonies which were categorised as affluent colonies like Sainik Farm and that the government was presently focusing on the re-development work of the 1797 unauthorised colonies which have been sub-divided into two classes.
Constructions raised in the affluent colonies like Sainik Farm are protected by law up to December 2023, Centre said.
In April 2022, while hearing the plea by Ramesh Dugar --convener of the area development committee at Sainik Farm, for regularisation of the colonies in the area, the high court had said that it was "high time" that the issue of regularisation of Sainik Farm was "resolved once and for all".
It had said that the decision had to be taken by the authorities as they could not keep the pot boiling indefinitely.
