NEW DELHI: Cosmetic demolition by civic bodies came under the scrutiny of the Delhi
high court on Wednesday which blamed the lack of transparency in the
agencies for rampant unauthorised construction all over the city.

“In the municipal corporations, entire proceedings from inspection of
reports, issuance of show-cause notices, orders passed in hearings,
demolition and sealing orders etc are kept under cover of great
secrecy,” a bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu
Malhotra said.

The court was shocked that more floors had been added to a building in
northeast Delhi’s Shahdara that was slated for demolition. It
emphasised that citizens have the right to be aware of how corporations
deal with their property.

“Looking from any angle, the matter of processing of application for
sanction of building plans; regularisation and also putting the
proceedings initiated by the building department under the Delhi
Municipal Corporation Act deserves to be immediately put in public
domain,” the court observed.

It also directed the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to answer
why digitised record of entire action relating to such work “should not
be posted on the website maintained by municipal authorities, of course
with appropriate safeguards.”

The high court said that EDMC should also explore if it can forward
such information to concerned government departments including DJB,
discoms and sub registrar of documents.

The court noted that due to lack of regulatory mechanism and opaque decision making by civic bodies, public has no access to information about their own property.

While hearing a petition highlighting illegal construction, the court
decided to delve deeper and examine why “only after a petition in the
nature of a PIL is brought, that the municipal authorities wake up to
their statutory duties and law obligations.”

The bench observed how “paper documentation in the nature of
show-cause notice, demolition and sealing orders are being passed to
create a facade of non-compliance, where under the shield of other
documentations, rampant illegal and unauthorised construction is
permitted to be continued.”