Delhi HC Stays Order Allowing Centre to Reclaim Sujan Singh Park Property
The Delhi High Court has stayed a trial court order that upheld the central government's right to take back possession of a 7.58-acre property at Sujan Singh Park in central Delhi, which houses the iconic Ambassador Hotel. On Monday, a bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna directed both the central government and the property owners, Sir Sobha Singh & Sons, to maintain the status quo until the regular second appeal is decided.
Observing that the property owners have remained in long and continuous possession since the 1960s, the court noted that the trial court's judgment would impact not only the rights of the appellant but also numerous residents living in flats constructed on the suit property. Justice Krishna stated that the balance of convenience lies in maintaining the existing position, adding that preserving the status quo would not cause any irreparable loss or injury to the government when no immediate public interest requiring disturbance of possession had been pleaded.
The legal dispute over the Sujan Singh Park property traces back to February 1959, when the Centre issued a notice directing Sir Sobha Singh & Sons to remove constructions that it deemed a misuse of the building within two months. On August 5, 1960, the central government issued a letter claiming it had re-entered the property effective July 29, 1960. Following that letter, the company moved the court in October 1960 and secured an interim injunction restraining the government from enforcing re-entry.
After decades of litigation, the suit was decreed in favour of the company on August 31, 2009, with the trial court declaring the government's February 1959 notice wrong and illegal. However, on June 9, the trial court set aside that decree upon an appeal filed by the Centre.
Sir Sobha Singh & Sons subsequently appealed the June 9 verdict in the Delhi High Court. The company submitted that it has been in continuous and uninterrupted possession of the land since 1943. It argued that dispossession during the appeal process would cause irreparable harm, as the site houses multiple establishments, including the Ambassador Hotel. The company also pointed out that an Estate Officer issued a show-cause notice on June 11, despite the trial court's reasoned judgment being uploaded only on June 12.
Countering the appeal, Centre's counsel Ashish Dixit submitted that the grant given to the company had been rightly cancelled and that proceedings under the Public Premises Act had been initiated for repossession. Dixit clarified that the show-cause notice was not issued on the basis of the June 9 verdict, but rather on various other grounds.
Staying the operation of the trial court's June 9 judgment during the pendency of the appeal, the High Court concluded that the legal questions raised require due consideration, making it imperative to preserve the existing position.
