DLF Valley Panchkula: Being
a resident of DLF Valley as well as an Advocate; I feel honoured to represent
the rights of residents before the multiple forms like High Court, Consumer
Forum, State Information Commission, District Registrar/State Registrar etc.
Therefore, I feel it apt to share my experiences; while dealing with the very
senior defence personnel and civilians; especially the veterans. Before shifting
to DLF Valley I got several opportunities to deal with the civilians; especially
the bureaucrats and senior officers, while serving ‘Central Information
Commission’ and ‘National Investigation Agency’, as a Law Officer.
But, my experiences with the Army personnel were restricted only as an NCC
Cadet from School to College and then brief interaction at the time of
interview for joining Army as an officer. Though, human brains can’t be fully detached
from pride and prejudices; but still I still try my best to be neutral and write
my experiences only based on record.
I
had to shift to the DLF Valley in the month of Feb. 2017, of course on the
directions of Consumer Court/Forum, after struggling with the exploitative and
giant builder DLF, as after shifting from Delhi I was on rent in Amravati
Enclave. After shifting; I had first meeting with the group of residents
consisting S.P. Singh & his wife Geeta Pal, R.P. Dangi, Yashpal Verma,
Surender Pal Singh, Sandeep Malik and other 4-5 residents. Interestingly, I
came to know at very belated stage that Mrs. Geeta Pal is the wife of S.P.
Singh, as they never introduced themselves as husband-wife and always appeared like
good friends/neighbours, I was also introduced to Mr. S.P. Singh by Mrs. Geeta
Pal, when she happened to meet me at Gym and asked my mobile for adding in a
whatsapp group of residents. I found that Mr. S.P. Singh & his wife Geeta
Pal, R.P. Dangi, Yashpal Verma, Surender Pal Singh were very active in
organising social events and as far I remembers these four persons organised
Holi Party; on 12-13 March,2017 after collecting money from about 20-25
residents. I was very happy to find such a friendly and affectionate atmosphere,
as after shifting from Delhi I was not well acquainted with people. Few other
small parties were also organised by S.P. Singh & his wife Geeta Pal, R.P.
Dangi, Yashpal Verma.
As
far as I remember, in the month of April, 2017, I received a message from Mrs.
Geeta Pal, asking me to attend meeting of residents in the Club House. After
brief introduction in the meeting of about 10 persons; Sh. Yaspal Verma
highlighted the problems faced by residents and then requested Mr. S.P. Singh
to formally preside over the meeting. Then residents raised their day to
problems and then Mr. R.P. Dangi told people present in the meeting that Mr.
S.P. Singh and Mr. Yashpal Verma, being retired officers, will be of great help
for DLF Valley residents and all problems of residents should be communicated
to them. In turn, both Mr. S.P. Singh and Mr. Yashpal Verma praised Mr. R.P.
Dangi, and told residents that being a retired Chief Engineer; he can be asset
for residents. Then, Mrs. Geeta Pal told the people present in meeting that Mr.
S.P. Singh and Mr. Yashpal Verma and Mr. R.P. Dangi should help the residents
getting addressed their day to day problems and she also said that if any other
resident is interested in helping these three persons can come forward; then
she herself suggested the name one another resident to render social service. I
was also asked to assist the above three persons, but I replied that I will try
to render my services as and when required, but being busy in settling in the
Chandigarh High Court, I would be able to devote time in formal manner as a member of
some Committee.
In
the 2nd meeting of residents Mr. S.P. Singh, supported by Mr.
Yashpal Verma and R.P. Dangi, suggested that we should form an ‘Association of
Residents’ and should create a fund for tackling problems and to have social
gatherings. I exactly replied that, “When we already have the registered
VRWS and the amount of more than 92,000/- collected from residents is already
available with the registered VRWS, why should we go for another association of
residents?” Upon this, I was told that the already registered society had
been formed by the DLF and that was useless. Then some other residents also
felt that rather than forming another association the details of already
registered society should be gathered.
In
the 3rd meeting of 15 residents Sh. Yashpal Verma requested that
there should be a ‘Convenor’ to convene the meetings of residents and asked if
anyone could come forward. All residents, including me, appeared reluctant to
be Convenor. Then, Mr. Yashpal Verma said, “I request Mr. S.P. Singh to take
the responsibility of ‘CONVENOR’” Then, I replied, “We are only 15
persons and in the whatsapp age, there no practical difficulty in convening the
meetings, then I don’t think any Convenor is required”. Other few residents
also dropped the idea of Convenor.
In
the 4th Meeting at Club House, in the gathering of 15-20 persons, a
suggestion came from the same four persons; suggesting that there should be ‘Core-Committee’
of residents to tackle the day to day problems of residents. As the meeting as
being already conducted by the three persons namely S.P. Singh, Yashpal Veram
and R.P. Dangi, these persons requested the other residents to become the part
of ‘Core-Committee’. All the three persons praised each other and
suggested the name of each other and one another resident for ‘Core-Committee’.
I was just an observer and like other residents; I was reluctant to be part
of such committee. Then one Mr. Malik residing in C-2 Block and other 2-3
residents suggested and pushed me to be part of the already formed Core-Committee.
As far as I remember, Mr. Sandeep Malik objected on the formation of such
committee. I suggested that some Army Officers, if residing, should also be
part of committee, but no Army Officer was available to part of committee. Ultimately,
the committee of S.P. Singh, Yashpal Veram, R.P. Dangi, Surender Pal Singh and
me was constituted.
On
01-04-2017, through an E-mail of Mr. Yashpal Veram, I received a draft representation
to be submitted to DLF highlighting the problems of residents. At the end,
there was a designation of ‘CONVENOR-Core-Committee’. Upon this I sent the
below e-mail, screenshot attached below:
After
this, the members of so called Core-Committee started ignoring me. Later on, I
came to know through several sources that Mr. S.P. Singh had contested the
elections from a political party and Mr. Yashpal Verma and R.P. Dangi were his
old classmates as well as the members of a political group at Agriculture University,
Hisar. Because of the aptitude developed by brief attachment with Investigation Agency; I developed suspicion
towards the activities of a group of residents and therefore I maintained distance; as the
activities appeared organised and pre-planned. In this regard, few semi
political activities like ‘Jhadu Yaatra/Cleanliness Drive’ "Meeting with MLA on behalf of residents and other similar
activities were organised by same set of residents.
Then
almost 7-8 months back Mr. Shish Ram Kaushik approached me, through our common
friend, as offered me that his known person Brigadier Dixit, is a very nice
person and he has experience of being President of DLF Gurgaon, and I should
support in getting elected him as a President of DLF Valley. I was surprised to
hear it. I asked, “Has elections been declared?” Mr. Kaushik replied, “No, but
it will be declared” Then, I asked, “Has Brig. Dixit shifted at DLF Valley?”
The he replied, “Mr. Dixit is going to shift here very soon” Without hiding my
annoyance I replied, “Who are we to elect anyone? A person, who served as a
President DLF, Gurgaon, has not even shifted here, and you want to promote him
as President. It does suit you at this age and stage of life” Then, I found
that Mr. S.R. Kaushik deadly against me in all meetings and joined the
so-called Core-Committee. And, surprisingly, in the next meeting of residents, Mr. S.P. Singh requested Brig. Dixit to preside over the meeting of residents at club house. Later on, it was revealed that the aforesaid informal
Core-Committee had further constituted the sub-committees of the residents from
each block. In fact, a complete organisational structure, like collegium, had been created in
the DLF Valley, by the aforesaid so called Core-Committe.
Then,
it’s a matter of record, the 1st Annual General Meeting of residents
held on 29.09.2017 was deferred, without discussion, on the written request; propagated Mr. S.P. Singh, Mr. Yashpal Verma and
their closely related friends. And, DLF was happy over the deferment of the
AGM. This letter surfaced in response to my RTI Application filed with the
office of District Registrar, Firms and Societies. The dissenting voice of
residents like Sandeep Malik was silenced by the people who ganged-up in
pre-planned manner.
The
last Annual General Meeting happened on 23.09.2018 and Mr. R.P. Dangi openly
hurled abuses on me and told the gathering that I did want to cooperate in the formation of
any association of residents. I such situation, the adhoc-committee of
residents was constituted and keeping in view the abuses of Mr. Dangi, reluctantly I had to become part of this committee, though I don't know who did proposed my name. And, apart
from other resolutions; the residents unanimously passed clear resolution that “The VRWS shall implement the Right to Information
Act, 2005 in its office, for providing any information to residents” However, in the very 1st meeting
of the adhoc-committee Mr. R.P. Dangi, Mrs. Geeta Pal, prevailed, in the pre-planned
manner; and changed the resolution to the effect that, “The resident will have
right to demand information only under the Societies Act” which does not
provide any mechanism to access information and also decided that only 355
persons , who had deposited Rs. 100/- were the legitimate members of VRWS,
which had not even been discussed during the AGM. In this regard, the forged
and fake minutes of meeting, prepared on the signatures of residents obtained
on blank papers, sent by the adhoc-committee to Registrar is a matter of
record, which can be seen by any resident. Again, the
dissenting voice of me and other residents like Sandeep Malik was silenced by
the people who ganged-up in pre-planned manner. And, I couldn’t further
participate in any of the activities of Adhoc-Committee. And, Army Officers who
matters a lot in our society, were always either ignored or they did not take
interest.
Considering
the aforesaid act and conduct of adhoc-committee , I
had to file the case in my individual capacity to bring our VRWS under the
Right to Information Act, so that all residents can, as a matter of right,
obtain information about day to day problems. And, I succeeded in it and court
has directed our VRWS to appoint Public Information Officer for providing
information to residents.
When, the signatures obtained on the blank
papers were misused by so called adhoc-committee and tempered minutes of meeting
were sent to Registrar, and a formal request on behalf of residents was made to
appoint ‘Administrator’ to run the affairs of VRWS, the very experienced and
concerned residents namely Brigadier Roveen Bansal, Brigadier
K.K. Marwah, Brigadier Beant Parmar, Col. M.S. Rekhi, Col. Harinder Singh, Col.
Onkarjit Singh Khangura, Col. G.K. Sanan, Commodore Iqbal
Singh, Jagbir Sangwan and Sandeep Malik, approached me for my legal
assistance. And, then, I filed a case, on behalf of concerned residents, in the
High Court asking for not imposing Administrator on residents and hold elections as
per law. We appeared to succesful when the DLF nominated VRWS had to admit before
the High Court that there are more than 1530 legitimate members of VRWS and steps
were being taken to conduct elections. In this regard, on the indulgence of
High Court, the DLF nominated VRWS was forced to convene meeting on 31-01-2019
and the residents facilitated the smooth functioning of meeting and took
decisions in positive manner.
But,
again, a twist came when one resident Mr. Shish Ram Kaushik residing at H.No.E/5/3; filed Miscellaneous
Application, i.e. CM-2045-CWP-2019, and placed on record a List of 355 Members
of VRWS, wherein he claimed that, “Sh.
Manpreet Wahi, General Secretary of the Society supplied a list of 355 members,
who had deposited the one time membership up to 31.08.2018. It means there are 355 members of the
Society, who fulfilled the criteria of membership as laid down” and
the majority decision of residents was also challenged through this Application. It may be relevant and important to
mention here that in the bylaws of the VRWS the prescribed requisite membership
fee was Rs. 2000/-. and majority of residents did not even know that the
prescribed fee had been reduced to Rs. 100/-. It appears that the fact of
reducing the fee to Rs. 100/- was known only to the person/s who managed to
deposit Rs. 100/- on behalf other gullible residents.
During the arguments before High Court the Advocate engaged by Mr. Kaushik ans
assisted Mr. Jagjeet Beniwal created ruckus in the court room and created
sensation and doubt in court room that, “the Army Officers with the aid of me
and other two civilian residents had approached the Court with hand in glove
with DLF/Builder and want to hijack the Society with ulterior motives” Such
allegations were leveled which I feel awkward to write here. And,
surprisingly, at this juncture, the counsel engaged by DLF nominated VRWS seized
opportunity and made statement that, “It appears a inter-se dispute among
residents and objections by Mr. Kaushik and other residents should be
considered by Registrar” Why Mr. Kaushik and his friends, as well as DLF
want the dispute to be heard by Registrar, when the matter is pending in High
Court? I was shocked at the turn of events. I told the court that there
was no inter-se dispute among residents, the only issue is that a set of
residents wants that only 355 members are the legitimate members and we are
saying that all residents/owners should be treated members” But, the intervenor
Mr. Shish Ram Kaushik had succeeded in creating doubts in the mind of the court and
after creating doubts did not press for application and withdrew the same and
in such situation the High Court had to pass order:-
CM-2045-CWP-2019 IN/AND CWP-29594-2018 (O&M)
BRIGADIER ROVEEN BANSAL AND ORS V/S REGISTRAR OF SOCIETIES, HARYANA AND ORS
"CM-2045-CWP-2019
Prayer in the instant application is for permitting the applicant to intervene in the writ petition. Learned counsel states that a representation has been made to respondent No.2 for redressal of his grouse.
Heard.
Considering the welfare of the residents, the respondents shall make an endeavour to consider and decide the representation, if any, has been filed by the applicant expeditiously, preferably before the elections.
In this view of the matter, learned counsel does not press the instant application.
Dismissed as not pressed.
Main case:
List again on 29.07.2019.
07.02.2019 (JITENDRA CHAUHAN)
JUDGE"
Now, due to the indulgence of the High Court we are successful in forcing the DLF nominated VRWS to declare election schedule, but it appears to me that, the vested interests, with the support of the Advocate for DLF nominated VRWS; have managed to bring the dispute
before the Registrar, with ulterior gains for ultimate goal to thwart the genuine efforts of very senior Army Officer and civilians. And, I have suspicion that the
smooth democratic exercise by residents will be hampered by the vested
interests, by taking the advantage of matter being relegated to the Registrar. Intentionally, the ball has been thrown in the court of Registrar, so residents can be hijacked with the aid of official machinery. I don't ask anyone to support or trust me. My only request is that please observe carefully and accordingly take informed decision. The common human prudence is sufficient to see through the designs and planning.
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