Orders reserved in buildings case

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has reserved orders on a batch of writ petitions challenging construction of buildings unauthorisedly and the locking and sealing of some of them in Chennai. The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam reserved the orders on Wednesday after listening to elaborate arguments advanced by counsel representing traders and business houses, which were sealed by the CMDA on October 31, 2011.When the matter was taken up for hearing, senior counsel Ravishankar Prasad said the order passed in 2006, by which a monitoring committee had been constituted to see the implementation of the regulations, was unconstitutional.The court had no such power to appoint a committee which was against the statute, he added. Senior counsel Altaf Ahmed submitted that the state was in the process of reviewing the TN Town and Country Planning Act and hence status quo as of now should be maintained. Senior advocate Ariyama Sundaram faulted the CMDA’s counter-affidavit as  it admitted that it was not obliged to serve notice on occupants of buildings identified for sealing. Senior counsel G Rajagopal said the authorities had sealed a building constructed much before the cut off date. It was purchased through Court auction and each of its floors is assessed for property tax, he said. P Wilson, senior counsel, said that since the amendment to the Town and Country Planning Act had not obtained the presidential assent,it could not be applied on the petitioners. Noting that there were six IAS officers in the committee, he wanted it to be reconstituted taking into account the present age and abilities of the members to visit each building and ascertain the violations.Advocate-general A Navaneethakrishnan said the Act provided forserving of notice either on the occupant or the owner and not on both. Sealing was as per court directions, he added.