Cut water, power supply to illegal buildings: Madras High Court
In survey, it was found only one per cent of the buildings had been built without any deviation
By : p. arul
Update: 2015-11-01 05:31 GMT
Chennai: The Madras high court has directed authorities not to provide water, electricity and sewage connections to unauthorised buildings and the ‘illegally’ constructed portions of buildings.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, before which a PIL filed by social activist, ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy came up for hearing, directed the authorities to snap the connections to 11,000 buildings in George Town (GT) area.
Ramaswamy sought action against illegal constructions in GT area, especially in congested Sowcarpet and its surroundings. On August 7, 2014, the court had ordered inspection of each building in George Town area within three months and notice be issued to unauthorised constructions.
After the survey, Chennai corporation filed an affidavit informing the court that out of 11,304 buildings inspected in the GT area, only 72 buildings were found to have been built in accordance with rules.
In the preliminary survey, it was found only one per cent of the buildings had been built without any deviation. The judges said “now only action that needs to be taken in case of illegal buildings and to seal entire building till the owner puts it in conformity to the sanctioned plan. The Bench pointed out that “building plans are obtained and construction is made with impunity, violating all norms. Still the property is sought to be assessed for property tax, apart from grant of electricity service connection, water and sewage connections, tacitly on the ground of legally constructed portion.
“It is not a solution to say a part of the building was legal as it had been constructed as per sanctioned plan, when the whole building in question is prima facie illegal. These constructions are not in the nature of additional construction, which may be capable of being regularised, but of extra floors being constructed,” they said.
The judges also directed the housing, municipal administration and water supply departments, CMDA and Chennai corporation to submit a plan of action “as to how the process will now be established to ensure that such buildings are not made capable of occupation.” The CMDA submitted that government’s exemption scheme for unauthorised constructions would be applicable to buildings built before the cut off date of July 1, 2007. The bench posted the matter for December 18.