ਆਪਣੀ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਭਰੋ

__________

BEFORE: __________

Diary / Registration No. ____________________ of 20________
(to be allotted by the office at the receipt counter on the day of presentation; the appellant must obtain it in writing on the spare copy before leaving the counter)

IN THE MATTER OF:

__________, __________, resident of __________
... APPELLANT / PETITIONER

VERSUS

__________
... RESPONDENT

Presented on: __________

SUBJECT: Challenge to __________ dated __________, being __________, passed in respect of the property described in the Schedule at the foot of this memorandum.

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:

1. WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS, AND WHY IT IS ADDRESSED TO THIS AUTHORITY AND NOT ANOTHER.

This document is presented as: __________. In it, the person presenting it is called "the appellant", and where this document is a revision that expression means the petitioner in revision; the property described in the Schedule is called "the said property"; the order challenged is called "the impugned order"; the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 is called "the Act"; and the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 are called "the 2007 Rules".
The forum is fixed by statute. It is not a matter of preference or of convenience, and the appellant has satisfied himself or herself of it before addressing this document. The position is as follows.
(a) An order of the Estate Officer made under section 8 or section 8-A of the Act is appealable to the Chief Administrator, Union Territory of Chandigarh, within thirty days of the date of communication of that order, under section 10(1) of the Act.
(b) An order of the Estate Officer, or of any other competent authority, made under the 2007 Rules is appealable to the Chief Administrator, Union Territory of Chandigarh, within thirty days of the date of communication of that order, under Rule 18(i) of the 2007 Rules.
(c) A revision against an order of the Chief Administrator passed in a matter arising under section 8 or section 8-A of the Act lies to the Central Government under section 10(4) of the Act, and is addressed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (Union Territories Division), North Block, Central Secretariat.
(d) A revision against an order of the Chief Administrator passed under the 2007 Rules lies to the Adviser to the Administrator, Union Territory of Chandigarh, under Rule 18(iv) of the 2007 Rules, and must likewise be made in writing within thirty days of the date of communication of that order.
(e) Those two revisional authorities are different authorities. Which of them has jurisdiction turns on whether the order in the first appeal was made under the Act or under the 2007 Rules, and on nothing else. A revision presented to the wrong one is liable to be returned unheard, and the thirty days continue to run while it is being returned. Where the impugned order rests on both the Act and the 2007 Rules, the appellant states so expressly in paragraph 4 below so that the question of jurisdiction is raised at the threshold rather than at the end.
(f) THE HEADING AND THE ADDRESSEE ARE A MATCHED PAIR, AND THERE ARE ONLY FOUR OF THEM. The heading at the top of this page names the provision under which this document is presented. The authority named immediately beneath it must be the authority that provision gives. The four permitted pairs are: an appeal under section 10(1) of the Act, to the Chief Administrator; an appeal under Rule 18(i) of the 2007 Rules, to the Chief Administrator; a revision under section 10(4) of the Act, to the Central Government through the Ministry of Home Affairs; and a revision under Rule 18(iv) of the 2007 Rules, to the Adviser to the Administrator. There is no fifth pair. If the heading of this document and the authority named beneath it are not one of those four, this document has been mis-addressed, and it must be corrected before it is presented at any counter.
(g) The Chief Administrator may in addition, of his own motion or on an application, call for the record of any proceeding in which the Estate Officer has passed an order, in order to satisfy himself as to its legality or propriety, under section 10(3) of the Act and Rule 18(iii) of the 2007 Rules; and no order prejudicial to any person may be passed in that exercise without giving that person a reasonable opportunity of being heard.
(h) Section 19 of the Act bars every court from entertaining any suit or proceeding in respect of the recovery of any arrears or penalty under section 8, the resumption of any site or building under section 8-A, the forfeiture of any money under that section, or any order made in the exercise of any power conferred by or under the Act. This statutory ladder is therefore the appellant's only remedy, and a step in it that is abandoned or allowed to lapse is a remedy lost, not a remedy postponed.

1. WHO THE APPELLANT IS.

The appellant is __________.
Identity relied upon: __________.
Address at which notice of hearing and every order in this matter may be served: __________.
Mobile: __________

1. THE SAID PROPERTY.

__________
Tenure on the records of the office: __________.
The said property was allotted, transferred or conveyed by or under __________ dated __________.
In Chandigarh the allotment file of the Estate Officer is itself the record of title to a sector property. There is no jamabandi, no Halqa Patwari and no Tehsildar mutation for such a property, and the consequence of an order of resumption, cancellation or forfeiture is therefore immediate and total: it operates on the very record that constitutes the appellant's title. That is why this challenge is preferred at once, and why interim protection is asked for below wherever the impugned order threatens anything immediate.

1. THE IMPUGNED ORDER.

Number and date: __________ dated __________.
Nature of the order: __________.
What the order directs, reproduced from its operative part:
__________
The impugned order was communicated to the appellant on __________, __________. A certified or attested copy of the impugned order, and proof of the date of its communication, are filed with this document, because the thirty-day period prescribed by section 10(1) of the Act and by Rule 18(i) of the 2007 Rules runs from the date of communication and not from the date the order bears.

1. WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE ESTATE OFFICER.

The appellant sets out the course of the proceedings so that the record called for from the office below can be checked against it.
The appellant's position on notice and hearing is this. __________
The Act itself requires that no direction under section 8 be made without giving the person affected a reasonable opportunity of being heard, and that an order under section 8-A be made only after calling upon the transferee by notice in writing to show cause and after considering the cause shown and the evidence produced. A resumption or forfeiture made without that opportunity is not merely irregular; it is made without jurisdiction.

1. LIMITATION.

The impugned order was communicated to the appellant on __________ and this document is presented on __________. The period prescribed is thirty days from the date of communication, under section 10(1) of the Act for an appeal against an order under section 8 or section 8-A, under Rule 18(i) of the 2007 Rules for an appeal against an order under those Rules, under section 10(4) of the Act for a revision to the Central Government, and under Rule 18(iv) of the 2007 Rules for a revision to the Adviser to the Administrator. In each of those four provisions the authority may entertain the matter after the thirty days have expired if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from presenting it in time.

1. THE FACTS.

The appellant states the history of the matter, in dates, so that this authority can test the impugned order against it rather than against the order's own account of itself.
__________

1. GROUNDS.

The appellant takes the following grounds, without prejudice to one another, and reserves the right to urge further grounds with the leave of this authority.
A. THAT the impugned order was passed in breach of the requirements of notice and hearing set out in paragraph 5 above, and is on that ground alone liable to be set aside.
B. THAT the impugned order records no reasons, or no reasons that engage with the case the appellant actually made, and an order visiting a person with the loss of a Chandigarh site or building, or with a money demand recoverable as arrears of land revenue, must disclose the reasoning that led to it.
C. THAT the penalty or consequence imposed is disproportionate to the default alleged, and that the authority below did not consider whether a lesser course was open to it. Under section 8-A(1) of the Act the forfeiture on resumption shall in no case exceed ten per cent of the total amount of the consideration money, interest and other dues payable in respect of the site or building, and any forfeiture beyond that ceiling is without authority of law.
D. THAT the quantification in the impugned order is unsupported by any computation disclosed to the appellant. Where charges are levied for misuse, Rule 10 of the 2007 Rules fixes them at Rs 500 per square foot of the area under misuse per month or part of a month, payable jointly and severally by the transferee and the occupier; the area said to be under misuse, the months for which the charge is levied and the arithmetic must all appear on the face of the order, and here they do not.
E. THAT the 2007 Rules do not in terms apply to the said property. By Rule 1(ii) those Rules came into force on their publication in the official gazette on 7 November 2007 and apply to all allotments or auctions made after that date and to actions or transactions pursuant thereto; the said property was allotted or auctioned on __________. Where that date is the earlier one, this allotment is not an allotment to which Rule 1(ii) extends the Rules, and Rule 20(ii) does not supply the deficiency: that sub-rule repeals the Chandigarh (Sale of Sites and Buildings) Rules, 1960 and the Chandigarh Leasehold of Sites and Buildings Rules, 1973 and deems anything already done, and any action already taken, under the repealed Rules to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of the 2007 Rules so far as it is not inconsistent with them. It preserves what was already done under the old Rules; it does not carry the new Rules, or a rate first fixed by them, on to an allotment that Rule 1(ii) leaves outside them. Nothing in this document is an admission that any provision of the 2007 Rules, or any rate fixed by them, applies to the said property.
F. THAT the impugned order proceeds on a repealed provision or on a provision that does not cover the case. Section 9 of the Act, which provided for forfeiture for breach of the conditions of transfer, was omitted by section 4 of the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) (Chandigarh Amendment) Act, 1973, the same amending Act that inserted section 8-A; an order that rests on section 9 rests on nothing.
G. THAT the procedural safeguards attached to the particular power exercised were not observed. Where the order is one for the removal of a misuse, Rule 10 of the 2007 Rules requires a notice giving not less than fifteen days and removal within two months, extendable to six months where the misuse is that of the occupier, and makes the charges payable within fifteen days of the order with interest at 1.5 per cent per month on delay. Where the order requires alteration or demolition of a building raised in contravention of the building rules, the proviso to section 15 of the Act permits the Chief Administrator to require that alteration or demolition by notice in writing within six months of the building having been begun or completed, and equally permits the acceptance of a reasonable sum by way of compensation instead.
H. THAT the appellant has at all material times been ready and willing to comply with every lawful requirement of the office, and that the said property has not been fragmented, divided, bifurcated or apartmentalised contrary to Rule 16 of the 2007 Rules.
I. THAT, further and in addition to the foregoing, the appellant urges the following, which are particular to this case:
__________

1. AMOUNTS PAID OR DEPOSITED.

Nothing in this document is an admission of liability for any sum demanded by the impugned order, and no payment made by the appellant is to be read as acceptance of that order.
The appellant is aware that dues in respect of a Chandigarh site or building may be checked and paid through the "Know Your Dues" and "Pay Your Dues" services of the Estate Office at estateoffice.chd.gov.in, and undertakes to keep undisputed dues current during the pendency of this matter.

1. THAT no other appeal, revision, review, petition or proceeding in respect of the impugned order has been filed by the appellant before this or any other authority, and that if any such proceeding is filed hereafter the appellant undertakes to inform this authority at once.

1. PRAYER.

It is therefore most respectfully prayed that this authority may be pleased to:
__________
and further to pass such other and consequential order as the facts and the justice of the case may require, and to award the appellant the costs of these proceedings.

SCHEDULE OF THE SAID PROPERTY

__________
Tenure: __________.
Held under: __________ dated __________.
Situate within the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

ANNEXURES

__________

Each annexure is filed in the number of copies the receiving counter requires, is paged and indexed, and is attested as a true copy by the appellant at its foot.

Place: __________
Dated: __________

____________________________
__________
APPELLANT / PETITIONER

VERIFICATION BY THE APPELLANT

I, __________, __________, the appellant above named, verify that the contents of this memorandum, the Schedule and the list of annexures are true to my knowledge, information and belief; that what is stated on my own knowledge is true; that what is stated on information received is believed by me to be true and the source of that information is disclosed; that no part of it is false and nothing material has been concealed; and that the copies filed with this memorandum are true copies of their originals.

Verified at __________ on __________.

____________________________
__________
Deponent

AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT, BY THE APPELLANT

I, __________, __________, resident of __________, do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as follows:

1. That I am the appellant in the above matter, am __________, and am competent to swear this affidavit.
2. That the accompanying __________ has been drafted on my instructions, that I have read and understood its contents, and that the facts stated in it are true to my knowledge and belief.
3. That the impugned order, being __________ dated __________, was communicated to me on __________, __________, and that the copy of it filed with the memorandum is a true copy.
4. That the annexures filed with the memorandum are true copies of their originals and that the originals are in my possession and will be produced when directed.
5. That nothing material has been concealed and no part of this affidavit is false.

____________________________
__________
Deponent

Solemnly affirmed at __________ on __________, the deponent having been identified to my satisfaction.

Sworn before __________.

____________________________
Signature, seal and register
entry of the attesting authority