Chandigarh, July 25 -- The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the Chandigarh administration's decision of banning conversion of residential buildings into floor-wise apartments and selling portions of it outside the family, across the city. The UT administration had come out with a notification, with effect from February 10, 2023, rejecting building plans of residential buildings where all co-owners were not from the same family - thus banning the sale of shares of a property outside the family. The UT's decision had come following an SC judgment in January 2023 ruling that the first 30 sectors of the city carried the heritage status of Le Corbusier zone and, therefore, conversion of residential houses into floor-wise apartments cannot be permitted in these sectors. While declaring so, SC had said the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee will consider the issue of re-densification in these sectors. After that the UT administration will consider amending the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031 and the 2017 apartment rules in accordance with the committee's recommendations. Any amendments will have to be placed before the central government for approval, the top court had said. Following this judgment, UT's heritage conservation committee decided not to allow the apartmentalisation and issued a public notice on February 10, 2023. The curbs, however, were not restricted to the first 30 sectors and included the entire city. This notice was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana high court and subsequently reached the apex court in 2025. One of the petitioners, Pooja Bharat Kapoor, who had challenged the HC judgement of February 2025, had claimed that she is a cancer patient and unable to sell her portion of the house and spend her final days with her family/ niece. "The UT notification creates a situation where the sale of a portion of the property can only be done within the family. It stops owners of the property from selling, gifting or bequeathing the property to an individual who is not a family member," she had submitted. It was also argued that the UT administration misinterpreted the 2023 judgment of the apex court and curtailed rights available to the citizens of the city to buy and sell property. Dismissing the appeals, the SC said, "..we are satisfied that the view taken by the high court in the impugned judgment(s) is legally correct and calls for no interference." It also took note of its own judgment of January 2023 in which the first 30 sectors of city were declared heritage sectors. The bench was presided over by chief justice Surya Kant with two other judges - justice Joymala Bagchi and justice Vipul M Pancholi....