The 40-year-old chapter of academic excellence being run by Dalhousie Public School (DPS) may be slammed shut, with a one-man commission of the Himachal Pradesh government recommending vesting of the entire school land located in picturesque Dalhousie, about 350 km from Shimla.
The commission, headed by Justice D.P. Sood, former judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, has made recommendations after finding glaring violations by the school authorities in property transactions and original lease deed. Vesting of the school would mean acquiring the entire premises.
The judicial commission, set up on the recommendation of the state assembly, probed illegal land transactions carried out across the state from 2003 to March 2011.
DPS, established in 1970, attracts NRIs and prominent people from the region. It also has students from foreign countries, including the US, Canada, Britain and several other European nations.
The commission, probing lease deeds relating to the school land, says the school got the land from the government on a lease of 99 years in 1937, with a condition of its renewal after 30 years.
It points out that ‘there does not seem to be any renewal lease deed after the expiry of the first term lease deed for 30 years, which expired Sep 18, 1966. Even rent as agreed upon does not seem to have been enhanced and deposited with the local civic body’.
‘It was found that terms and conditions of the lease deed have been blatantly violated by the occupiers by raising (an) additional building in the leased premises and thereafter sold the property to various persons, including non-agriculturalists, without seeking permission,’ says the report.
