August 25,2018:
Taking strong note of the recent fire incident in a posh Mumbai high-rise that claimed four lives, the Supreme Court said the people were dying in such illegally-constructed buildings which had no relevant certificates or clearances.It also referred to the incidents of Bawana factory in Delhi and the Kamala Mills in Mumbai and said unregulated constructions were being rampantly carried out with the hope that "some day such buildings will be regularised".
Apex Court comprising of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta expressed concern over illegal constructions and wondered how such high-rises were being allowed to be constructed with no clearances from the authorities.
SC Bench stated that,"People are dying in these unauthorised constructions. You see what happened in Mumbai's Parel where a fire broke out in high rise building two days back. We have read somewhere that the building did not have an occupancy certificate. How are these high rise buildings being allowed to be built".
Supreme Court is dealing with a matter related to the unauthorised construction in Delhi, stated that,"it is actually a sorry state of affairs if we look other parts of the country".
Bench asked that."We are dealing with the issue of Delhi, but what is happening in rest of the country is equally worrying. Shall we start taking the matter city-wise for Mumbai, Calcutta or Chennai".
Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, concurred with views of bench and stated that these high-rises were being built due to "large scale corruption in town-planning departments and civic bodies."
To this, Bench added that,"then what is the government doing if there is so much corruption. Tell us what steps are being taken by it. If we take certain action, you say it is judicial activism".
Supreme Court is dealing with issue of validity of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations which protect unauthorised constructions from being sealed.
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