The Hindu : New Delhi News : Supreme Court ‘no’ to high-rise buildings in Lutyens’ Delhi

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Supreme Court ‘no’ to high-rise buildings in Lutyens’ Delhi

J. Venkatesan

‘NDMC ban was necessary to protect the green character of this zone’

PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

CAPITAL’S PRIDE: The skyline of New Delhi that has stood the test of time thus far. –

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the ban imposed by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on construction of multi-storeyed buildings in Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone in the heart of the Capital. It said such a ban was necessary to protect the green character of this zone.

Judgment set aside

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal thereby set aside a judgment of the Delhi High Court quashing the 1988 guidelines issued by the Centre to protect the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone.

As per the guidelines, “new construction of dwelling on a plot must have the same plinth area as the existing bungalow and must have a height not exceeding the height of the bungalow in place, or, if the plot is vacant, the height of the bungalow which is the lowest of those on the adjoining plots”.

Public interest

The Bench said, “While construing the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone guidelines the Court will have to take notice of public interest sought to be protected by the guidelines because if the guidelines had not been scrupulously followed as has been admittedly done since 1988, the LBZ area of Delhi would never have remained the bungalow area as visualised in the Master Plan and within no time skyscrapers would have come up in the LBZ seriously affecting the low-density character of the area.”

M/s Tanvi Trading and Credit Pvt. Ltd. had applied for permission for construction of a two-and-a-half-storey building with 15 dwelling units on a vacant plot on Amrita Shergil Marg in New Delhi.

Request rejected

The NDMC rejected the request citing the 1998 guidelines but the Delhi High Court in May 2004 held that these guidelines could not be enforced as they did not have the force of law. The present special leave petition by the NDMC was directed against this judgment.

Allowing the appeal, the Bench said that the concept of Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone guidelines was incorporated into the Master Plan and the Government of India had directed the authorities to strictly enforce these guidelines and therefore they became directions.

Executive power

Writing the judgment, Mr. Justice Panchal said, “The executive power of the Union under Article 73 of the Constitution extends to matters with respect to which Parliament has the power to make laws and hence the field in which law could have been made, executive instructions may be issued in the absence of legislation in the field or if there is existing legislation, then to supplement it.”

The Bench pointed out that although “the subject matter of the guidelines per se falls within the scope of the Minister for Urban Development, no relaxation without the approval of the Prime Minister could be granted by any other authority, since the same have been issued at the initiative of the Prime Minister’s Office”.

The Bench held that “the respondent would not be entitled to construct 15 dwelling units which is quite contrary to those guidelines”.

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