The Kerala Judicial Officers Cooperative Society has moved a writ petition in the Kerala High Court against the memo issued by the Kochi Corporation stopping construction of a 15-storey apartment complex at Chalikkavattom for allegedly obtaining building permits after submitting falsified land documents.
The stop-memo was issued on a complaint that building permit for the apartment complex had been obtained from the civic body after manipulating land documents which showed that the land was a dry land.
According to the petition, the Society had purchased 33.90 ares of land in Edappally South village along with a portion of an old dilapidated building to construct a residential apartment for its members. The Society purchased the property after being convinced about the title over the property as well as the nature of the land.
Travancore Builders Private Limited, which had undertaken the construction work of the multi-storey residential apartment complex, had commenced works in March 2019 on obtaining the building permit. The Society has spent ₹49,10,00,00 so far on the project, the petition said.
The works were on the verge of completion when the corporation issued a stop-memo on the ground that the property came under the category of ‘nilam’ (wet land).
The petition had said that the stop memo was illegal, as it was issued without following the basic principles of natural justice. The corporation should have given the petitioner an opportunity to show cause why a stop memo shall not be issued against it, since the corporation was initially convinced with the documents at the time of issuing a building permit, the petition added.
