Madras high court orders demolition of seven unauthorised floors in Pondy Bazar commercial building

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has ordered demolition of seven floors of unauthorised construction of a commercial building in Pondy Bazar in Chennai.

Rejecting the request of the builder to regularise the illegal construction, a division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar observed that regularisation of unauthorised construction could not be claimed as an absolute right.
“It is a concession granted as a one-time measure through special schemes. The govt is not expected to regularise the unauthorised buildings in a routine manner by invoking the provisions of exemption under the Town and Country Planning Act,” the court said.

The court then directed the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to proceed with the demolition of the unauthorised constructions, by retaining the approved portion of the building, within eight weeks.

The court passed the order on a plea moved by Bengaluru-based Janpriya Builders challenging the demolition notice issued by the CMDA to demolish the fourth to tenth floors of the building located on the Sri Thyagaraya Road, Pondy Bazar, T Nagar, Chennai.

Instead, the petitioner wanted the court to direct the CMDA to process its applications dated May 24, 1995, and May 26, 1996, and regularise the unauthorised construction. As per the approved plan dated Feb 9, 1990, the builder was authorised to construct only three floors.

Dismissing the plea, the bench said, “No unauthorised construction shall be allowed to remain, and the authorities are bound to initiate appropriate actions on receipt of information or complaint from any person.”

The court said the builders were emboldened to commit such illegalities at the cost of the people with the fond hope that it would be regularised. “They are emboldened because of large-scale collusion on the part of the officials of the CMDA and other authorities,” the court said.