CHENNAI: Paving the way for the demolition of a multi-storeyed building housing the TCS Textiles Private Limited on Usman Road in T. Nagar, the First Bench of the Madras High Court vacated an order of status quo granted by a single judge.

The matter came before the Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice K. Chandru, after advocate G. Rajendran informed it that even when an entire batch of petitions concerning the regularisation scheme was being heard by the First Bench, "one of the violators before the Bench" had moved a fresh writ petition and obtained an order of status quo from a single judge.

When the Bench vacated the interim order, which had effectively restrained the enforcement authorities from carrying out the demolition fully, R. Krishnamoorthy, senior counsel for the building-owner, requested the Judges to suspend operation of the ruling for a week to facilitate appeal.

The Bench, however, rejected the plea.

Referring to Advocate-General R. Viduthalai's submission that the court must order police protection to demolition teams of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the Bench directed the Chennai City Commissioner of Police to give adequate protection to the officials. The protection was necessitated as the CMDA men "were threatened by the hirelings set up by the building-owner," the Bench reasoned.

The Bench, which observed that the building in question had violated every development control rule, wondered how the structure, which was only ground-plus-two stories tall on July 11, 2006 could have grown into an eight-storey structure as on date. The court told counsel for the other building-owners, who are before the court for similar violations, that it would lay down general guidelines for the Special Bench to follow while disposing of similar cases.

Monitoring committee

On Wednesday, the court constituted a monitoring committee to oversee multi-storeyed buildings constructed in violation of plan permission, coastal regulatory zone provisions and other development control rules.

The Committee, which will have access to the CMDA and Chennai Corporation files pertaining to construction, has to be consulted by the Government in case of any changes in the master plan or the development control rules.

The monitoring committee will identify the erring officials of the CMDA and the Chennai Corporation, and recommend prosecution and/or disciplinary action. The judges also held that notices need not be issued for demolishing structures encroaching upon public places and streets, and added that water and sewerage connections given to such facilities must be disconnected "forthwith."

Special Bench

No civil court shall entertain any suit or application in connection to the regularisation, and all connected matters pending in the High Court would be posted before the Special Bench to be constituted by the Chief Justice.

The Bench said the CMDA must clear all pending applications within three months, and asked the Chief Secretary to entrust the pending work with two more Secretaries, in addition to the Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department.

The committee shall comprise the CMDA Vice-Chairman; Chennai Corporation Commissioner; Chennai Police Commissioner; Managing Director of Metrowater; Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board; Director of Fire Services; and Chennai District Collector.

It shall have five others, including Louis Menezes, former Chairman of Chennai Corporation, M.G. Devasahayam, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department, and Kuppuraj of the School of Architecture and Planning of the Anna University.

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