Supreme Court to decide on Maharashtra government’s authority to regularise illegal buildings

Source: dnaindia.com

The Maharashtra government’s petition against an order of the Bombay High Court that tied the hands of the state’s planning authorities from regularising any unauthorised construction got admitted in the Supreme Court on Friday.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose issued notice on the state’s plea to the petitioners who approached the Bombay High Court in public interest litigation (PIL). The Court will consider the case after six weeks.

According to the state, Section 52A of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act which allowed the state to regularise illegal part of any constructed area was “read down” by the Bombay High Court on November 2, 2018 in a way that the authorities were bound to carry out demolition. The High Court directed the state planning authorities – City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, to carry out a survey within a year and present quarterly reports on the demolition action carried out.

Senior advocate Anil Sakhre who represented the state informed the Court that due to the HC order, lakhs of properties in the state were under the threat of demolition. The PILs in HC pertained mainly to Navi Mumbai where the illegal construction was on a massive scale. Due to the order, the state could not compound the structure that was found to be in violation of the Development Plans or the Development Control Regulation under the MRTP Act.

MIDC alone had issued notices to 2118 illegal constructions in Navi Mumbai till October 2015 while the Municipal Corporation of Pimpri Chinchwad had identified 66000 illegal constructions till 2012.