Ultimate duty of DDA is to ensure development of Delhi, should be allowed to use its discretion:HC

The ultimate duty of the DDA is to ensure development of the national capital and it should be allowed to exercise its discretion as it thinks best, the Delhi High Court has said.

Justice C Hari Shankar said even if, in a given case, the court feels that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) could have acted otherwise, restraint has to be exercised by law on the DDA.

"It cannot be said, with any modicum of legitimacy, that the DDA has any axe to grind against any person to whom land is to be allotted by it, or that it acts mala fide in that regard.

"The decision of allotment of alternative plots, to persons whose lands have been acquired, is, at all times, essentially and fundamentally a decision of policy. So long, as the decision does not result in unconstitutional, or unjust, deprivation of the right of the citizen to property, it remains substantially immune from judicial review," the judge said.

The observations came while dismissing a plea by a city resident, Ram Kumar, seeking .