The Madras High Court has directed the State government and the Greater Chennai Corporation to raze a three-storey private commercial building on North Mada Street in Mylapore built in violation of the approved plan of construction.
Directing that the building owned by E.M.PR. Muthappan should be demolished within a month, a Division Bench of Justices M. Venugopal and S. Vaidyanathan held that no mercy could be shown on individuals who violated the law blatantly.
The judges pointed out that the petitioner had initially built a structure without a building plan. Thereafter, he got a plan approved and went on to violate it. He did not rectify the defects despite being given ample opportunity to do so.
“Without rectifying the defects, the petitioner has come forward before this court challenging a Government Order dated April 4, 2017. As there is a categorical finding by the respondents that there are large-scale violations, the question of regularisation does not arise,” the Bench said.
Through the April G.O., the Housing and Urban Development department had rejected an appeal preferred by the petitioner against the corporation’s refusal to regularise his building.
Therefore, he had challenged the G.O. in the present writ petition.
Encroachment to go
Disposing of another writ petition, the Bench directed the Kanchipuram Collector and Uthiramerur Taluk tahsildar to demolish a portion of the house that had been constructed by encroaching upon three meters out of an eight-meter wide road.
The officials were ordered to ensure that the eight-metre-wide road was maintained properly in future for the benefit of local residents.
In yet another case, the judges held that possession of ration card and electricity connection could not be cited as a reason by encroachers to claim ownership of government land.
