K. Ramachandran

and A. Subramani

CHENNAI : The historic judgment delivered by the Madras High Court on Wednesday quashing the amended regularisation scheme has resulted in one major gain for the ordinary citizen.

The First Bench has mandated that a Completion Certificate is needed for getting water and power connections for any building in the Chennai metropolitan area.

Thus anyone aspiring to buy a flat or a house will have to just demand from the builder/promoter the Completion Certificate to know whether a building has been constructed as per the sanctioned plan. Going by the judgment, only buildings, which fully comply with the sanctioned plan without any deviation will get a Completion Certificate. Only after this, can a builder apply and seek power and water connections for the new structure. In fact, the very occupation of the building itself shall be "contingent on the Completion Certificate."

Civic activists and lawyers note that while buying a land, a clear non-encumbrance certificate is an indicator for the buyer that he or she would not run into any problem over the title of the land at a later date. Similarly, a Completion Certificate can give enough guarantee for a flat or house buyer to know whether the building has been built as per the plan sanctioned and approved by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority or the Chennai Corporation.

To be doubly sure, the court has held the official issuing the CC as responsible for any deviation in the structure.

The purpose of the Monitoring Committee, constituted by the court, is to oversee buildings of floors constructed in violation of development control rules, to access files in the custody of the CMDA and the Chennai Corporation, and to identify officials responsible for violations and recommend action.

It shall also be consulted before any change is made in the master plan and the development control rules.

The committee and the urban development department have a task on hand on this issue because issuance of a completion certificate requires a legal backing for implementation.

Activists note that the CC was made a compulsory instrument for providing water and power connection a few years ago. However, after the Electricity Act, 2003 came into force, a power utility has to give power connection on demand, and cannot cite any extraneous reasons for denying the service. In fact, in 2004-05, the TNEB brought this to the notice of the Government and the provision compelling a building promoter or a flat owner to present the CC to the TNEB for getting power supply connection was relaxed.

Similarly, the Metrowater also had to make similar relaxation of this compulsion, as people started taking unauthorised water connections or began constructing septic tanks instead of going in for proper sewerage service connections to individual homes and apartment complexes. In this light, the Monitoring Committee, which has been asked to look at ways to deal with building rule violations in residential complexes, may suggest amendments to the Electricity Act and the Water Supply Act to bring back this provision for making CC compulsory again.

The Builders Association of India-Chennai chapter president, L. Moorthy, said his association had always been speaking against indefinite extension of the regularisation scheme by the CMDA. "We have always felt that the regularisation scheme was essentially against citizens... ," he added.

However, he is sceptical about the question of Completion Certificate.

He and citizen activists such as Bharat Jairaj of Citizens Civic and Action Group feel the need for a time-frame for issuance of Completion Certificate or rejection of application for the certificate. Mr. Moorthy says builders should be allowed to give self-assessment reports of complying with the sanction plan. "If any builder is later found to have deviated from the approved plan, then we welcome demolition of the deviated portion... that's clear," he adds.

But activists feel that going by past experience, such a provision could be misused, at least by a section of builders.

Mr. Bharat Jairaj says the judgement will now ensure that violators become a minority and in that sense, the order is historic.

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