A Division Bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah advised the DDA counsel to consult senior government officers on the possibilities of holding back future allotments under the scheme to reserved categories till the air clears on allegations of the fake allotments of flats.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Prem Chand, a 42-year-old resident of Dilshad Garden and a member of the reserved category, through his lawyer K V Dhananjay seeking the court’s intervention for an interim stay in allotments to SC/ST allotees.

The DDA had put up 5,238 flats, priced between Rs 7.2 lakh to Rs 77.8 lakh, for allotment between the months of August and September under the ‘DDA Housing Scheme 2008’, of which 17.5 per cent of the available number of flats were reserved for the Scheduled Caste category.

The “legality” of the reservation policy has been questioned by Prem Chand, who has moved the High Court for an interim stay on the allotment of houses under the specific reserved category for Scheduled Castes.

The petition further contended that the government agency had surpassed its jurisdiction by “inviting applications from the Scheduled Caste applicants outside the National Capital Territory” without a thought for members of the “oppressed castes” domiciled in Delhi.

“The Bench found enormous merit in our plea that the DDA should have restricted allotments to those domiciled in Delhi, and has sought the agency’s response on the particular point,” Dhananjay said.

Chand, who had applied for a flat under the reserved category, termed the current allotment under the Scheduled Caste category “discriminatory” and devoid of any “a rational relation to the needs and aspirations of the people resident or domiciled in Delhi”.