After nearly three decades of “frozen development”, around two lakh residents of old Gurugram in Haryana have a reason to hope that the long-standing restrictions around the Air Force ammunition depot could ease, following a recent Punjab and Haryana High Court intervention that has reopened the question of the 900-m restricted zone.
The court, in an order on petitions, including one by the Gurgaon One Residents Welfare Association, leaned on the Supreme Court’s December 2024 ruling in M/s Goya Resorts Pvt. Ltd. vs Union of India. That judgment recorded that the 1983 declaration under Section 3 of the Works of Defence Act, 1903, stood quashed because the Centre had failed to act on it for nearly 40 years. The Additional Solicitor General confirmed before the High Court that no fresh notification had since been issued, leaving the old curb legally hollow even as construction in the zone stays barred until the Centre takes a fresh view.
That legal opening has now been seized politically. Gurgaon MLA Mukesh Sharma (BJP) has written to PM Narendra Modi, seeking a fresh, scientific notification that would retain only the tight buffer defence authorities consider essential — 300, 100 or even 50 metres — while freeing the 300-to-900-metre band, nearly 600 metres of dense habitation, for municipal governance and regularisation.
The restriction blankets a large stretch of old Gurugram. Residents hold valid electricity connections and sewerage links and pay property tax, yet roads, drainage and street lighting remain stalled because the MC cites the 900-metre bar. Crucially, property registries stay blocked, leaving families unable to legally buy or sell their homes. Around the Sheetla Mata Mandir, visited by lakhs of devotees, works worth nearly ?150 crore have reportedly been stalled within a kilometre radius.
“The government should act swiftly, and the PMO must ensure fresh instructions are issued,” the MLA told The Tribune. “This does not pertain to Gurugram alone, there are many such areas across the country where lakhs of people suffer because of a redundant notification. It is high time this is changed,” he added.
Sharma, who also represented the matter to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the Department of Defence Estates, said the affected belt formed a major part of old Gurugram, and a rational policy could bring relief to lakhs while respecting genuine security needs.
