The Hindu 04.08.2012
Unauthorised structures: HC pulls up officials
The inaction and negligence of officials of Chennai
Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Chennai Corporation,
besides extraneous considerations, has led to unauthorised and illegal
constructions coming up.
The First Bench of the
Madras High Court comprising the Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice
T.S. Sivagnanam observed this in its order on a petition. The
petitioner, J. Narayanan of Ashoknagar requested the court direct the
authorities to issue a direction against one Mangala Ramakrishnan for
putting up an unauthorised construction in a building without obtaining
planning permission.
The Bench observed that before
it took any action against the CMDA and Chennai Corporation officials,
it was directing them to take action towards demolishing the illegal and
unauthorised construction.
In an order in another
case, the Bench directed the Government Pleader to seek instructions as
to why the matter should not be referred to CBI for holding an enquiry.
In
a petition, R. Ramamurthy and his wife Mahalakshmi of Neelankarai
sought to quash a demolition notice of May 28 of the Zonal Officer,
Corporation zone-XV, and direct the authorities to approve the plan and
the construction put up by them. The petitioner said he decided to
construct a building consisting of two floors with two houses in each
and applied for approval of the plan to the St.Thomas Mount Panchayat
Union. With regards to the application, he was told that the authorities
could not pass any order and he could put up the construction in
accordance with rules and later, they would consider the application.However, he alleged, that his neighbours who were inimical towards him had filed a writ petition
By
an earlier order, the court had directed the Corporation counsel to
file an affidavit stating as to why officials allowed the petitioner to
construct such a palatial building. In the counter, the Corporation
Executive Engineer filed an affidavit that the site was inspected on
March 13 this year based on a CMDA letter. It was found that the entire
construction was unauthorised and hence notice was issued.
The
Bench observed that EE had very conveniently evaded the question posed.
Since the respondent had failed to file an affidavit, the Bench said it
was giving the direction to the Government Pleader.