Nirmala Gupta vs. Municipal Corporation of Delhi
Background
On essentially identical facts to the preceding case, the petitioner sought a new Tehbazari site at Mata Sundari Marg following the 2018 demolition of the Bapu Market sites, claiming rights through a 2016 transfer/partnership arrangement from one Mohd. Asad, who had himself acquired the site from an earlier 2012 holder.
Decision Breakdown
The Court found the relied-upon change of hand occurred in 2016, after MCD's recognized cutoff of 6 February 2007, and that MCD had already rejected the mutation request on this basis in 2022. Mohd. Asad's own earlier writ petition on the same site had also already been dismissed, with the Court there noting he was ineligible for an alternate site due to concealment of facts. The petition was dismissed.
Lesson Learnt
Municipal cutoff rules for recognizing vendor-site transfers are applied consistently across similarly situated claimants, regardless of how the private chain of hand-offs is structured.