New Delhi, Jun 4 (IANS): The Delhi High Court Friday barred a subsidiary of estate giant DLF from building a high-rise residential complex in the vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said: "DLF cannot develop private flats near Rashtrapati Bhavan."

"The land use cannot be converted for the high-rise construction for residential accommodation," said the bench.

The bench sought central government's land interference in the matter.

Edward Keventer Successors Pvt. Ltd. (EKSPL), a company controlled by DLF, was in the process of constructing the residential flats.

Te court was hearing a petition filed by the central government opposing DLF's project in Chanakyapuri as a potential security threat.

The government moved the two-judge bench after a single judge bench of the court allowed Edward Keventer to construct the residential buildings.

The EKSPL, a subsidiary of real estate giant DLF, holds the lease for a 9.26-hectare (22.9 acre) dairy farm located around a kilometre behind President's Estate at Block 42, Keventer Lane, Sardar Patel Marg. The property is under a perpetual lease deed since August 1942.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had also informed the central government that any change in land use from dairy farm to residential in this particular case will have serious implications as there were a large number of owners of plots for agricultural use who would seek a similar change in land use.

In September 2008, EKSPL deposited conversion charges with the government with an application seeking permission to convert the land use of the plot behind Rashtrapati Bhavan from dairy farm to residential.