Officials face flak for slow pace of action on encroachments

A division bench comprising Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice S Vaidyanathan while declining to interfere with a demolition notice and lock and seal order issued by the Chennai corporation for a building on MKN Road in Alandur, said “In Chennai, there are a lot of violations regarding construction and land encroachments, which have to be curbed with an iron hand. There is no reason why authorities are ineffective in taking steps and even if steps are taken, it moves at a snail’s pace.” 

The bench also on noting that authorities must take dynamic action to decimate the violated buildings without standing on any technicalities, said “ If there is no building plan, or there are plan deviations, they must be removed by the violator. If not, authorities are entitled to remove them and recover the demolition costs from the violator.”

As for the violated building on MKN Road, the bench rejected the defence that the demolition notice was not issued to the actual owners and hence needs to be quashed. The bench on holding that whoever is the owner of the property, there should be a sanction plan to construct the building, directed the officials to issue fresh notice asking the owner to demolish the unauthorised floor within 15 days of receipt of the notice.