Act on Illegal building, HC tells Corpn

The first bench of Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad made the observation while hearing a contempt plea moved by activist ‘Traffic’ KR Ramaswamy seeking action against the authorities for failing to obey court order and not taking action against Terapanth Jain Vidyalaya School located in Sowcarpet, Chennai for illegal construction.

When the plea came up for hearing, the counsel for Housing Development department submitted that the department has made a decision on the revision application moved by the school and rejected the same. Therefore, the petitioner cannot claim contempt against the authorities, the counsel said.

Countering this, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that though the revision moved by the school has been rejected, no action has been taken to remove the unauthorised construction.

When the bench sought to know why the Corporation has not proceeded further, the Corporation counsel submitted that de-occupation notice has been issued to the building owner. Recording the submissions, the bench directed it to proceed further in accordance with law and report compliance.