Sealing to continue until impact fee rule comes into force

A division bench of the Gujarat high court on Monday ordered the Ahmedabad municipal corporation (AMC) to continue with the sealing drive on CG Road and not to wait for the impact fee rule to be implemented.

The division bench of chief justice SJ Mukhopadhyay and JB Pardiwala came down heavily on the AMC while continuing with the hearing on unauthorised constructions and the violation of rules in the construction of buildings in the city.

The court pulled up the civic body for not continuing with the sealing drive on CG road after the state government announced the impact fee rule.

During the hearing, the bench asked the AMC whether it had stopped the sealing drive. The counsel for the civic body replied that the state government had come up with a new impact fee rule under which there was a possibility that buildings violating construction norms would be regularised.

On hearing this, the chief justice came down heavily on the AMC and directed it to continue with the sealing drive until the impact rule came into force. The court also told the civic body to implement the impact fee rule only when it came into force and not before that.

Earlier, the court had, suo motu, taken up the issue of unauthorised constructions on CG road and had directed the corporation to take action against buildings flouting rules related to parking, fire safety and other construction norms. The AMC had then initiated action and started sealing the premises of buildings which had violated the rules.