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Delhi High Court seeks RBI opinion

Staff Reporter

No bank loans without building plans

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the opinion of the Reserve Bank of India on a suggestion by the Monitoring Committee appointed by the Court to oversee the demolition of unauthorised buildings in the Capital that banks should be asked not to sanction loans for construction or purchase of properties without building sanction plans.

The Monitoring Committee headed by former Delhi Police Commissioner R.S. Gupta made this suggestion to a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma in order to protect innocent buyers who are taken for a ride by builders and suffer monetary losses due to demolition of their illegal properties for no fault of theirs.

The Bench asked the RBI to file a reply to the suggestion by November 16, the next date of hearing.

The Bench issued the direction while hearing a bunch of petitions seeking removal of encroachments on public land and demolition of buildings built without building sanction plans.

It also directed the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to file an action taken report on misuse of basements meant for parking in the New Delhi area. The direction came on a complaint by a Court Commissioner.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its status reports about the progress of the probe into allegations of a nexus among Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials, builders and politicians in the mushrooming of illegal constructions in the Capital said it had so far booked 36 politicians and builders.

However, the investigating agency expressed its inability to divulge their names saying that it would adversely affect the investigation.

Besides, the agency had booked 37 MCD officials who include a Deputy Commissioner, Executive Engineers, Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers, the report said, adding that it had so far identified 465 unauthorised properties across the city.

The Court directed the land-owning public agencies to lodge cases of criminal trespass against the encroachers following removal of their encroachments on public land.

It also pulled up the DDA for going slow on demolition.

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