Delhi High Court gives DDA two months to decide pending leasehold-to-freehold conversion applications

30 September 2026

A Delhi High Court bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Vikas Mahajan has directed the Delhi Development Authority to process all pending applications for conversion of property from leasehold to freehold within two months.
The court said the applications must be decided under the policy that was in force when the applicants originally filed them.
The order was passed on 30 September 2026 in Delhi Development Authority v. Mala Sahni Seth & Another and connected matters, reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 937.
The court recorded that 1,373 conversion applications filed between 2020 and 2026 remained pending and that the DDA had collected about Rs. 155.06 crore in conversion charges.
It also recorded that 308 applications had been approved but the conveyance deeds remained unexecuted, and that the IDLI portal had been non-functional since January 2026.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the DDA were directed to frame a policy for new applications and place it before the court at the next hearing on 11 December 2026, with senior officials to appear in person.