Failure to act against illegal buildings could spell legal trouble for CMDA

CHENNAI: 

Failure to decide on the fate of 148 buildings in T Nagar, which had sought exemption under Section 113-A of the Town and Country Planning Act that allowed unauthorised construction before February 29, 1999, to be regularised, could land Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in trouble. A case in this regard has been listed for hearing in the Madras High Court on July 12.

Despite then housing secretary having written a letter to CMDA to convene a meeting two years ago, the meeting is yet to take place. Due to a lack of action, a PIL seeking action against unauthorised constructions in T Nagar was filed, and it will be heard on July 12.

CMDA and Chennai Corporation surveyed unauthorised buildings in T Nagar in 2007 and identified 64 buildings for enforcement action. A total of 25 buildings were to be sealed on October 31, 2011. However, interim stays were obtained. In February 2012, the HC took cognisance of accepting the recommendations of Justice Mohan Committee, which had proposed the insertion of Section 113-C in the Town and Country Planning Act to regularise buildings constructed up to July 1, 2007, and extended the interim stay granted on enforcement action.

On June 22, 2017, the government came up with revised rules and regulations for the exemption of unauthorised and deviated buildings constructed up to July 1, 2007, under Section 113-C. However, the new regularisation scheme could not be implemented following petitions in HC seeking to quash the GOs issued by the Housing and Urban Development department, claiming it to be violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India as it seeks to impose arbitrary unfair and illegal pre-conditions for regularisation.

A batch of writ petitions has been filed before the HC seeking to constitute a high-power, multi-disciplinary special task force to survey, identify, compile data and formulate a comprehensive regularisation scheme for the removal or regularisation of unauthorised constructions across the state and execute the scheme within a prescribed time limit. A counter was not filed by the state since September 2, 2020, and on June 21, 2022, a division bench asked the state to file a comprehensive counter. Last November, Housing Minister S Muthusamy wrote a letter to then housing secretary to form a committee to regulate the unauthorised buildings.