B. N. KIRPAL ( 1 ) THIS judgement will dispose of a bunch of writ petitions which have been filed by different Group Housing Societies challenging the decision of the Government of India dated 20th January, 1990 where by certain guidelines have been laid down regarding the procedure to be followed by the Delhi Development Authority (respondent No. 3) in the matter of allotment of land to such Societies in Delhi. ( 2 ) BRIEFLY stated the facts are that prior to 16th July, 1983, for some period of time, the Registrar Cooperative Societies (respondent No. 4) (hereinafter referred to as Registrar) was not registering any Group Housing Society under the provisions of 0 Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 1972. The reason, presumably, was that there was little chance of these Societies being able to get land for construction. ( 3 ) MOST of the land in Delhi having been frozen at the instance of the Government or the DDA as a result of large scale acquisition of land. It was for the DDA to decide to allot the land for the purposes of construction of houses or flats. As and when land became available construction activity was either undertaken by the DDA itself or land was allotted to an individual or Cooperative Societies. We are informed at the bar that the practice which has been followed by the DDA under instructions of the Union of India is that 60% of the land which is available for construction of residential units is constructed upon by the DDA itself and 40% of the land is allotted to different Group Housing Cooperative Societies. One of the norms which has been laid down by the DDA for making allotment of land to Cooperative Societies is that the said Society should not have less than 60 and more than 300 members. ( 4 ) ON 16th July, 1983 a public notice was issued by the Delhi Administration to the effect that the Administration had decided to re-open the registration of Group Housing Societies. THOSE Societies which had membership between 60 and 300 persons and who did not own any residential property and were residents of Delhi could be registered The application for registration was to be accepted in the office of the Registrar between 18th July, 1983 and 17th August, 1983 on a prescribed form to be available from the office. THOSE Societies which had membership between 60 and 300 persons and who did not own any residential property and were residents of Delhi could be registered The application for registration was to be accepted in the office of the Registrar between 18th July, 1983 and 17th August, 1983 on a prescribed form to be available from the office. Vide Press note dated 17th August, 1983 this period of registration was extended from 17th August, 1983 to 30th August, 1983. ( 5 ) LARGE number of persons, thereafter, formed Group Housing Cooperative Societies and applied for registration with the Registrar. Out of over 2600 Societies which applied 1406 Societies were registered. The Societies had to apply and obtain registration by satisfying all the provisions of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act and the rules framed thereunder. This postulated the scrutrny of the application forms by the office of the. Registrar whi granted registration only if, at least prima facie, the Societies had fulfilled the prescribed rules and icgulations and were eligibla to. registration. ( 6 ) ON 13th March, 1984 the Registrar issued a public notice in all the leading newspapers of Delhi. This public notice was as follows: "dda has act intimated that they would not rev consider allotment of land to Group Housing Societies registered in 1983-84. Those Societies who have closed their membership and desire to seek land through DDA are requested to submit their member- ship list and other documents to the Office of the Registrar Cooperative Societies on prescribed proforma available with the office from 20th March, 1984 onwards. " THE effect of this was that those Societies, namely, 1406, who IS had got themselves registered were then required to submit their final membership list to the Registrar. They were also to submit other documents on the prescribed proforma. Such list was to be supplied on or after 20th March, 1984. There was no time limit stipulated for the submission of such list. It seems that the Registrar must have realised that there could not be a indefinite period during which such list could be submitted. On 13th May, 1985 another public notice was accordingly issued in which if was stated that so far out of 1406 registered Societies only 652 Societies had submitted their list in the prescribed proforma for onward transmission to DDA for the purpose of allotment of Q land. On 13th May, 1985 another public notice was accordingly issued in which if was stated that so far out of 1406 registered Societies only 652 Societies had submitted their list in the prescribed proforma for onward transmission to DDA for the purpose of allotment of Q land. This public notice informed the balance 754 Societies that they could submit their final membership list in the prescribed proforma within 30 days of the issuance of the notice failing which it would be presumed that societies were not pursuing their main objective. This dead-line of 30 days with effect from 13th May, 1985, which was fixed by the public notice, was then extended to 31st July, 1985 vide another public notice dated 2nd July, 1985. ( 7 ) THE effect of the aforesaid three public notices dated 13th March, 1984, 13th May, 1985 and 2nd July, 1985, therefore, Was that those societies who wanted land to be allotted to them from the DDA were required to submit their final list of membership along with other relevant documents and affidavits to the Registrar and the Registrar, thereupon after verification, would transmit the said documents to the DDA for the purposes of allotment of land. ( 8 ) AT the time when the aforesaid public notices were issued the Central Government formulated Delhi Development Authority (disposal of developed Nazul land) Rules, 1981. These rules v/ere promulgated by the Central Government under the relevant provisions of the Delhi Development Act, 1957. At the time when the aforesaid public notices were issued the said rules were not in operation. Before procceding further it will be relevant to set out two of the Nazul rules, namely, rule 6 (vi) and Rule 21. RULE 6 (vi) : Subject to the other provisions of these rules the Authority shall allot Nazul land at the predetermined rates in the following cases namely to co-operative group housing societies, co-operative housing societies, consumer co-operative societies and co-operative societies of industrialists on "first come, first serve basis". RULE 6 (vi) : Subject to the other provisions of these rules the Authority shall allot Nazul land at the predetermined rates in the following cases namely to co-operative group housing societies, co-operative housing societies, consumer co-operative societies and co-operative societies of industrialists on "first come, first serve basis". Rule 21: NAZUL land of such size, as the authority may, from time to time, decide with the approval of the Central Government may be allotted on lease-hold basis, at predetermined rates to such co-operative societies, registered under the Delhi Co-operative Societies Act, 1972 (35 of 1972), as are specified in clause (vi) of rule 6, subject to an undertaking given by such society that it shall use such land for its bona fide purposes or business only. ( 9 ) AFTER the issuance of the aforesaid public notice dated 13th March, 1984, out 1406 societies, 652 societies submitted their list of members. After public notice dated 13th May, 1985, 239 more societies submitted their lists and after the last public notice of 2nd July, 1985 about 400 and odd societies submitted their lists. ( 10 ) AFTER the lists had been received by the Registrar from the various societies, correspondence was exchanged between the Registrar and some of the societies. This was with regard to the verification of the lists of inembers which had been submitted by the societies. The exercise was being undertaken in order to see that members of the societies fulfil the criteria or the eligibility " condition for being made members of the societies and for consequential allotment of a flat. The lists so submitted were approved by the Registrar at various points of time. Some of the list which wers received earlier were. in fact, approved later and vice versa. We shall advert to this aspect presently. ( 11 ) ON 20th January, 1990 the aforesaid office memorandum containing guidelines regarding the procedure for allotment of land was issued. These guidelines were issued by the Government of India and the said memorandum is as follows : "the undersigned is directed to refer to the minutes of the meeting held in this Ministry on 23rd October, 1989, circulated to all concerned by our O. M. of even number dated 13-11-1989 and to convey the approval of this Ministry to the procedure outlined below in the matter of allotment of land to Group Housing Societies in Delhi. (A) The date of seniority for allotment of land for a cooperative group housing society will be date on which the papers of the Society have been found in order and approved by the office of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Delhi Administration. (B) In case where part approvals have been accorded by the office of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies on different occasions, the last date of approval will be relevant for the purpose. (C) There the date of approval is the same in the case of more than one Society, their inter seniority will be in order of the average age of their members in the decending order. Thus the society with a higher average age of the members will rank senior. (D) Land will be offered by DDA for allotment in minimum lots in a given location or area. Any approved Society will be free to apply. In case the number of Societies who apply is more than what can be observed in the land offered, the allotment will be decided by the order of seniority as determined above. THESE instructions are issued as clarifications to rule (vi) of the DDA (Disposal of Developed Nazul Land) Rules, 1981, and may be brought into force with immediate effect. " THE effect of the aforesaid memorandum was that a seniority list of the societies was prepared according to the date of approval of the final list by the Registrar. The DDA had been given the land by the Central Government in the project called Dwarka Project at Papan Kalan for allotment to various cooperative group housing societies. On the basis of the aforesaid memorandum dated 20th January, 1990 a seniority list of approximately 409 group housing societies had been prepared and allotment of land took place by draw of lots in respect of 260 societies. This draw took place on 17th January, 1991.