November 03, 2018:
On Friday, Supreme Court said that residential premises in Delhi which are being misused for commercial purposes should be sealed within 48 hours if their owners do not furnish permission documents or licence for running the business.
Bench comprising of Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice R Subhash Reddy observed that the Centre has adopted a "non-cooperative" approach in dealing with the issuance of advance notice to the owner of a property being misused before sealing it.
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It took into account the suggestions given on Thursday by Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, assisting the Court as an amicus curiae in the Delhi sealing matter, that persons misusing residential premises for unauthorized activity be asked to produce the licence within 48 hours.
Court in its Thursday order noted,"However, in the event the persons are unable to produce any permission or licence, the premises will be sealed due to the unauthorized misuse."
The amicus had also suggested that if the owner of the property being misused would give an undertaking, which would be video recorded, that the misuse would be stopped and he or should would file an affidavit before the concerned authority that the same would not be misused, then another 48 hours time could be given for this.
On Friday, in course of the hearing the bench also dealt with the issue of Joint Survey of houses conducted in South Delhi area by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) & the Land and Development Office (L&DO) in August.
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Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said that 2,354 houses were surveyed in the survey conducted in Amar colony, Motia Khan & 2 other areas.
He said that report of survey would be ready within 2 weeks after the Diwali holidays.
ASG told the Court that 400 houses in the areas where survey was conducted were sealed by the court-mandated monitoring committee & they should be de-sealed so that survey could be done.
Bench said,"You give the report first. Give it to the amicus also. After you will give the report, we will see."
Amicus told the Court that monitoring committee has filed a report regarding the SDMC's Policy for holding social functions in motels & also in farmhouses.
Amicus said,"The monitoring committee is saying that under which law, they (SDMC) has permitted this."
The bench then told the ASG, "These lands were taken from the farmers, genuine farmers. The DDA (Delhi Development Authority) had acquired these lands. Keep that in mind."
Bench has asked the SDMC to respond to the monitoring committee's report within 3 weeks.
Bench observed,"Lot of these problems are due to the inefficiency of DDA and MCD (municipal corporation of Delhi) since 2006. These bodies blame each other. Monitoring committee is a soft target for them."
On Thursday, Court had came down heavily on DDA & other civic agencies for keeping "their eyes closed" on misuse of residential premises for commercial purpose since 2006 and had said this has led to a "mess" in the National Capital.
Court in July had said that a show-cause notice should be issued to the owner of building where unauthorized construction or misuse was found & 48 hours time be given to him or her respond to it as to why action be not taken.
Committee had thereafter told the Court that issuing advance notice creates more problem as people "hoodwink" with Agencies which perpetuates corruption.
Top Court is dealing with the issue of validity of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 & subsequent legislations which protect unauthorized constructions from being sealed.
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