No coercive action on lock & seal notice issued to 17 flat owners: HC

CHENNAI: In a slight relief to the owners of 17 flats in a private housing facility on the outskirts of Chennai, a division bench of the Madras High Court directed the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) not to take any coercive action on a lock and seal notice issued to all the petitioners for vacating their premises.

The bench of Justice VM Velumani and Justice R Hemalatha passed the direction on disposing of a batch of petitions filed by V Hariharan and 16 others – owners of the flats in the Royal Palace, a housing facility in Sabapathy Street, Sembium, near Chennai.

The contention of the petitioners was that they received lock and seal and de-occupation notices on September 5, 2022, October 18, 2022, and December 15, 2022, on the ground that there were some deviations in the construction of the flats.

A team of GCC officials visited the premises on December 15 and asked the petitioners to vacate the houses.

The petitioners noted that believing the representation of the builder that the building is approved by the CMDA and therefore, they purchased the above flats by borrowing loans from the bank.

“Our properties are assessed for property tax and all are paying the tax regularly to the GCC. Even though electricity, water, and drainage connections were also provided by the government, the de-occupation notices were issued,” the petitioners added.

Though a stay petition and revision petition were given Section 80-A read with Section 113-C of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971, to the GCC commissioner, the authorities responded that the petitions would be taken only as per the priority. As the GCC gave only a week's time to vacate the property, the petitioners approached the court.

Recording the submissions, the judges held that the GCC is directed to dispose of the revision petitions and stay petitions filed by the petitioners as expeditiously as possible, in any event, within six months.

“Till such time, the respondents are restrained from taking any coercive steps against the petitioners based on the notices issued to them,” the judges said in the order.