No stay order after Centre has taken over Jaipur Polo Ground, says Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Monday said a stay order cannot be passed once the Centre has taken possession of the 15.20-acre Jaipur Polo Ground in the Race Course area, with the Indian Polo Association raising concerns over the digging of the turf during the pendency of their appeal against their eviction from the premises.

A vacation bench of Justice Vinod Kumar made the oral observation while dealing with the Indian Polo Association’s petition against a sessions court’s order declining interim relief to it on its appeal.

Noting that the sessions court’s order was also not available, the vacation judge listed the petition before the roster bench on July 1 and remarked that a stay cannot be granted once the authorities have already taken possession.

“Once possession has been taken by the government, there is no question of a stay. If you succeed in the appeal, status quo ante will follow,” the court said.

Senior counsel appearing for the petitioner urged the court to protect the polo ground from being dug up in the meantime, else the appeal against the eviction order, which is pending before the sessions court, would become infructuous.

He emphasised that the authorities were “completely destroying” the Jaipur Polo Ground’s turf, which is of international standard.

“Let the order come. What is the tearing hurry to dig up the ground? It is a 100-year-old turf. They should not dig up the ground till 1st,” the senior lawyer argued.

Central government counsel Ashish Dixit informed the court that the polo ground was being demarcated for raising a boundary and nothing was being done on the turf where the sport is played.

In its petition, the Indian Polo Association assailed a June 18 order of the sessions court, which acts as the appellate authority under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, rejecting its interim application seeking restoration of possession of the Jaipur Polo Ground, stay of enforcement and execution of the May 20 eviction order and a restraint against demolition, uprooting, digging, disturbing or altering the Jaipur Polo Ground.

In the alternative, the petitioner had sought reasonable access for routine maintenance, preservation and upkeep of the polo turf and associated sporting infrastructure.

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The petition said that the rejection of the petitioner’s interim application was ex facie erroneous.

It said the authorities have already taken possession of the Jaipur Polo Ground during the pendency of the appeal and commenced “irreversible activities” like digging, uprooting and other physical alteration of the land and turf, which would render the matter infructuous.

“The Jaipur Polo Ground is a specialised sporting facility and not ordinary vacant land. Its turf requires continuous mowing, irrigation, levelling, aeration, rolling, grass-cover management, weed control and upkeep by trained ground staff,” the plea said.

“Any excavation, digging, construction activity, disruption of irrigation, uprooting of grass cover, compaction by heavy machinery, or levelling without turf supervision will cause irreversible damage to the ground, permanently impair the Premises as a polo ground and defeat the subject matter of the Appeal,” said the plea.