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NEW DELHI: Saying the menace of unauthorized construction is "eating into our city", the Delhi high court on Tuesday said that such constructions shouldn't be tolerated. A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw made the observation while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by 44 shopownersof Diamond Mall, Karol Bagh. The owners had approached HC, challenging the decision of the MCD to seal their shops. They had argued that they were subsequent purchasers of their respective shops, not the owners of the plot or developers of the construction on the plot. According to the MPD 2021 and the zonal development plan, the MCD is required to frame redevelopment plans and schemes for these areas, they further argued. The shop owners accused the MCD of adopting double standards. According to the MCD, the building plans for the construction over three plots was sanctioned in 2004 and the property was permitted for commercial purposes. MCD alleged, unauthorized constructions in the shape of deviations excess coverage of basement and other floors with projections on municipal land led to demolition action by the civic agency. Sealing action was also taken and some of the floors were sealed in the last few years. "The petitioners even as subsequent purchasers owed a duty to satisfy themselves of the illegality of the title which they were seeking to require...the present is a clear case where the entire construction of Diamond Mall by illegally amalgamating three distinct plots is unauthorized," the bench observed, dismissing the plea. |
| SOURCE: The Times of India |
