Madras High Court directs Pammal Municipality to seal floors built sans permission

CHENNAI: A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has directed Pammal Municipality to lock and seal a portion of a building on Kasturibai Street in Dr Ambedkar Nagar and also told the electricity board to disconnect electricity supply to the building, for having violated the building rules.

A Bench of Justices M Venugopal and S Vaidyanathan gave the directive while passing interim orders on a petition from an adjacent building owner S Kamaladevi, recently.

According to petitioner, Claustin David was originally in occupation of the property. Claustin David, in the name of conducting prayer meetings, had put up illegal and unlawful construction without any sanction from the authority. He had also encroached upon the canal and put up the unauthorised first floor.
Though the tahsildar, vide his proceedings dated September 26, 2016, confirmed the illegal construction and suggested removal, the municipality commissioner did not take any action.

The Bench, after going through the counter affidavit filed by the municipality, observed that David had obtained permission for construction of stilt plus first floor. But he had constructed ground and first floor, the Bench said and directed the municipality to lock and seal the violated portion of the building and disconnect electricity and water supply.

The Bench also made it clear that the violator shall not create any third party rights or encumber the property in question during the pendency of the petition and posted the matter for filing counter by the violator on April 10.