Illegal buildings make Delhi dangerous, says Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi high court, on Friday, said that the national capital has become a dangerous city to live in because of rampant unauthorised construction. The court also felt that there is a need to unify the three municipal bodies as the trifurcation of MCD (municipal corporation of Delhi) had “not improved” the situation.

Pulling up the three municipal corporations of Delhi, a bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar said that the court was flooded with PILs (public-interest litigation) against illegal and unauthorised constructions, which shows that no regulation was being followed by the civic bodies.

“Delhi is such a dangerous city now because of unauthorised constructions,” it said.

The court also said that “under the shield” of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (special provisions) Act, which is amended from time to time, “completely illegal and rampant unauthorised constructions were going on.”

The Act, which was last amended by the Lok Sabha in December 2014, protected all unauthorised constructions up to June 1, 2014, from punitive action. Prior to the amendment, unauthorised constructions, only up to February 8, 2007, were protected.

While hearing a PIL, which alleged unauthorised construction going on in some properties in Mehrauli in South Delhi, it observed that the MCD trifurcation had not improved the situation and that there was a need to unify the trifurcated MCDs.

Advocate Kushal Kumar, appearing for South Delhi Municipal Corporation, said that in the instant case the persons who were allegedly engaged in unauthorised construction had obtained sanction from it through online application. The bench, however, said that just because the application was made online, the corporation’s responsibility to carry out an inspection “does not get obviated.”