Process to cancel Vadra firm's land rights started

Chandigarh: The Haryana government has started the process of cancellation of licence granted to Robert Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited in 2008 and subsequently transferred to realty company DLF Universal Limited for Rs 58 crore.

According to the director of the state’s town and country planning department, K.M. Pandurang, the formalities to cancel the licence had been completed keeping in with provisions of the Haryana Development and Regulation and Urban Areas Act, 1975. “We have to follow procedure of cancellation which we are following and the formalities have been completed. We gave them notice and hearing opportunity, which has concluded. Now, we have to take a decision and that process is on,” he said.

Mr Pandurang said that the mutation of the land was set aside by the then director general, consolidation of holdings in 2012, thus affecting the title of the land. “There were issues regarding title of the land,” he said.

Mutation is the transfer or change of title of a property in the land records of the revenue department. One of the conditions stipulated the grant of a colonisation licence under the Act of 1975 is that licence holder should have a clear title to the land. A colonisation licence allows the holder to set up a colony for residential, commercial or industrial purposes.

The colonisation licence was originally granted to Sky Light Hospitality by the TCP department for setting up a commercial colony on 2.7 acres in Gurgaon. Sky Light Hospitality, by way of a sale deed of September 18, 2012, sold 3.53 acres of landto DLF Universal for Rs 58 crore. TCP gave in-principle approval for the transfer of licence to DLF in April 2012, but final permission for the transfer was not granted.

However after that , DLF Universal had been depositing a renewal fee for the licence on behalf  of Sky Light Hospitality, but the department has not renewed the license after 2012.