All encroachment complaints should be heard, officials told

While passing interim orders on a plea seeking issue of patta, a division bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Justice S Vaidyanathan said, “It is only the complainant who can bring violation to the notice of the authorities and the authorities are expected to act with honesty and integrity.”

“Hence, this court has time and again held that the complainant needs to be heard. If the complainant is not a party, the appeal has got to be rejected on the sole ground,” the bench said.

The judges added: “This court is of the view that the authorities, whether be it officials of the Corporation or Municipality, are expected to decide the matter pending before them on a day-to-day basis without adjourning the same beyond 15 days at any point of time.”

It also directed the authorities to conduct the proceedings on Saturdays to enable the parties, who may be employed, to appear, and decide the issue after recording the proceedings and obtaining the signatures of the parties.

Also citing a string of orders that regularisation proceedings should be conducted by the authorities after hearing necessary parties who were likely to be affected and if there were complainants, they should also be heard, the bench held, “This court makes it very clear that in case of non-contiguous zone, row houses are not permissible and that the building has to be constructed only in accordance with the plan leaving proper set back as per the plan, failing which, the owners/occupiers will not have any indulgence seeking regularisation.”

The bench also recalled its observation in an earlier order that land encroachments were like cancer, slowly eating the lung space of the land and leading to a situation where there would be no breathing space for anyone, much less the earth, to survive in the orbit.