Seeking the Corporation to address the issue with the degree of seriousness it deserved, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, “It is made clear that the court may ultimately come down heavily on the illegal construction and deviation if such matters are not attended to and the deviation not removed by the Corporation before the court takes stock.” 

Noting that the issue required the attention of the officials at the highest level, the bench said its observation be made available to the Corporation Commissioner and the State government for some kind of regulation to be maintained in urban areas in this regard. It also sought the government not to lose sight of the nexus between unwanted elements and people in power in this regard, and the large amount of money that changed hands over such violations. 

“The illegal construction in Zone V is symptomatic of a similar situation prevailing in all 15 zones of the Corporation,” the bench added. 

When the matter came up in January, the then Advocate General had sought time to file a counter. Considering that the civic body was battling the second wave of COVID-19, the court had granted eight weeks as sought for. 

The matter pertains to unauthorised constructions in Zone V (Royapuram). The petitioner had submitted that as per details obtained under Right to Information Act, there were 5,523 violations in the Zone but notices were issued for just 1,000 of them. 

To examine whether further action was taken on these violations, the court directed the Corporation to file an updated status report.