The Madras High Court on Friday restrained the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) from demolishing tenements rented out under public quota at Tod Hunter Nagar in Saidapet until February 19, when a batch of writ appeals preferred by the allottees will be taken up for hearing.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and C. Saravanan passed the interim order at the instance of senior counsel P. Wilson who claimed that the government had decided to demolish around 10,000 TNHB flats in 17 different locations in Chennai and construct new buildings only with the intention of making money.
According to the counsel, TNHB had written a letter to the government in 2012 for demolishing the flats at Peter’s Colony, Lloyds Colony, Tod Hunter Nagar, R.K. Mutt Road, R.K. Nagar, Mandavelipakkam, PVR Salai, Ashoka Colony, Anna Nagar west and Venkatapuram among others.
The reason given for the necessity to demolish the buildings was that they were built in 1963 and all of them were in a dilapidated condition. The government accepted the claim in 2013 without undertaking any cross verification and this led to a decision to demolish tenements built in 1987 and 1997 at Tod Hunter Nagar, he said.
‘In good condition’
“Flats, buildings and other structures constructed by the government are State resources and when they are in good condition, they should not be demolished merely for making profits,” he argued.
The counsel contended that the appellants had received structural stability certificates from qualified engineers to prove that their tenements were in good condition. “The buildings are being demolished only for the purpose of giving jobs to contractors and for the purpose of making profit, nothing more,” he said.
Further, contending that there was no assurance of the present allottees being allotted tenements after construction of new buildings, the appellants brought to the notice of the court that TNHB was yet to build new tenements at Foreshore Estate where old tenements were demolished.