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1994 (5) TMI 291

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..... . First respondent is the D.D.A., a body constituted under the Delhi Development Act, 1957, and the second respondent is the Deputy Director (CD in the office of the D.D.A. By a subsequent order. Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, was also impleaded as a respondent No. 3. (3) Ram Dhan was the original lessee having perpetual leasehold rights in the plot in question .He executed a Will dated 26 October 1977 bequeathing the leasehold rights in the plot in favor of the petitioner. Ram Dhan died. The petitioner applied to the court of the District Judge, Delhi, for grant of Letters of Administration with copy of the Will annexed. On 7 May 1980 the District Judge granted her the necessary Letters of Administration. On 8 May 1980 she wrote to the Deputy Director (Commercial), Dda, respondent No. 2, that Shri Ram Dhan had executed a Will in her favor, and that she had taken out Letters of Administration in her favor. She, Therefore, wanted the leasehold rights of the plot to be transferred in her name. (4) Multiple correspondence ensued. Then on 19 June 1992, after about 12 years of the petitioner writing to the Dda, she received a letter from the second .....

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..... icate of Ram Dhan as well as copy of Letters of Administration granted by the District Judge by order dated 27 April 1979. Respondents then said that the petitioner was asked to furnish certain documents like sale agreement, power of attorney if executed by Ram Dhan in her favor, and also certified true copy of the 'probated' Will. Then the respondents stated that when they examined the Will certain commitments were mentioned therein and the petitioner was asked to explain the significance of these words in detail. It was only then that the petitioner was asked to pay 50% unearned increase of the price of the land as per the policy decision of the respondents. (7) It will be appropriate to refer to some of the relevant terms of the perpetual lease deed on the basis of which the respondents state that they had raised the demand. These would be sub-clauses 4, 5 and 8 of clause Ii pertaining to the covenants to be performed by the lessee, and are:- (4)(a) The Lessee shall not sell, transfer, assign or otherwise part with the possession of the whole or any part of the commercial plot except with the previous consent in writing of the Lesser which he shall be entitled to refuse .....

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..... ransfer in writing to the Lesser. In the event of the death of the Lessee the person on whom the title of the deceased devolves shall, within three months of the devolution, give notice of such devolution to the Lesser. The transferee or the person on whom the title devolves, as the case may be, shall supply the Less or certified copies of the document(s) evidencing the transfer or devolution. If we refer to the policy decision of the D.D.A., it is as under : I In cases where a request is received for transfer of property on the basis of 'WILL' to a person outside blood relation who is not within the definition of 'family member' under the guidelines issued earlier, the following documents should necessarily be obtained from the applicant/legatee for the purpose of mutation :- (1) Certified copy of will left by the allottee; (2) Death certificate of the allottee; (3) Affidavit disclosing the particulars of the legal heirs whom the allottee had survived; (4) No objection of the legal heirs regarding mutation of the interest of the deceased in favor of the legatee(s); (5) Affidavit from the legatee declaring that the properly in question had not passed on to him durin .....

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..... d increase is not being jeopardised. (8) It is not disputed, and nay it could be disputed, that under the Will executed by Ram Dhan, the original lessee, he bequeathed all his rights in the plot in favor of the petitioner. It should be immaterial, as far as respondents are concerned, as to what considerations prevailed upon Ram Dhan to bequeath his plot to the petitioner. For the respondents to allege that Will was not executed by the testator out of any love or affection for the petitioner, is of no relevance. The petitioner obtained Letters of Administration as per the procedure prescribed under the Indian Succession Act, 1925. The Letters of Administration in the form prescribed under section 290 of the said Act were granted on 7 May 1980 in pursuance of the order dated 27 April 1979 of the District Judge, Delhi. We may also set out the Letters of Administration, the schedule attached to which mentions the plot in question :- I,G.C.JAIN,Judge of the District of Delhi, hereby make known that on the 27th day of April, 1979, letters of administration with a copy of the Will annexed of the property and credits to the extent of Rs.37,000.00 (Rs.Thirty seven thousand only) as per sche .....

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..... ecide for any reason, it can require the legatee to get the genuineness of the Will established in a court of law as per the procedure prescribed under the Indian Succession Act. The D.D.A. can not broad base its enquiry as per the policy decision extracted above. (10) We find that the decision of the respondents requiring the petitioner to pay unearned increase and interest thereon is not legal, and their communications dated 19 June 1992 and 17 September 1992 have no validity in law and are set aside. A direction is issued to the respondents to transfer the leasehold rights in property being Plot No. D-3, Community Centre, Naraina, New Delhi, measuring 88.8 sq. yds., in favor of the petitioner and to mutate the plot in her name, all on the basis of the letters of administration with the Will annexed in her favor. Will' means the legal declaration of the intention of the testator with respect to his property which he desires to be carried into effect after his death [see section 2(h) of the Indian Succession Act]. There is nothing in the terms of the lease deed that the legatee has to pay any charges towards unearned increase in the cost of the land comprising the plot. (11) W .....

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