New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday expressed concern over the proposed auction of Raisina Bengali School, calling it “an issue of public interest”.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia indicated it was inclined to stay the auction proceedings pending before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), but refrained from doing so as the tribunal had not been made a party to the petition.
“You take public land on lease and allow it to be auctioned? We are concerned about the land; it is an issue of public interest,” the bench orally observed while hearing submissions from the school management, which claimed it was making regular payments to settle the loan.
The court permitted advocate Khagesh B Jha, appearing for petitioner Justice For All, to file a fresh petition impleading the DRT as a party and raising all contentions.
The high court was hearing an application filed by an alumnus of the school in the main petition seeking a stay against the proposed e-auction of the school, which is facing mounting debt amid allegations of financial mismanagement.
The plea said “that if the e-auction is allowed to proceed, the subject property may be sold to a third party, creating third-party interests and causing irreparable loss to the students of the school, which cannot be compensated in terms of money.”
Urging HC’s immediate intervention, the alumnus also accused Delhi govt’s Directorate of Education (DoE) of backing out of its earlier undertaking to the court that it would take over the running of the CR Park-located school.
Last month, however, the DoE informed the High Court that the decision could not be implemented as the school is a minority institution. It said the takeover would be possible only if the managing committee voluntarily surrendered its rights or if the court issued a specific direction to that effect.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which leased the land to the school in 1988, also filed an affidavit stating that two acres were allotted for construction of a senior secondary school building, while another two acres were given on a temporary basis for a playground on payment of nominal rent.
Earlier, the court had questioned the DDA’s decision to permit the school society to mortgage the property, asking how the land-owning agency could allow this when the land was allotted for a social purpose and not as a commercial property.
In 2022, Justice For All approached the high court opposing the auction of Raisina Bengali School, built on public land, over its failure to repay a loan of around Rs 8 crore, arguing that it would affect nearly 900 students, teachers and staff members. The petition was disposed of after the DoE then agreed to take over the school’s functioning.
