Let demolitions Bill be okayed by President, HC tells govt

 

NEW DELHI: A Special Bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday ruled that the demolition drive in the capital would continue until the Bill recently passed in Parliament to regularise such constructions was notified by the government.

 

In other words, the court said, that the Bill though passed by Parliament cannot stop the demolitions until it became an enactment by way of Presidential assent and notification in the official gazette.
    
"Don't talk about the Bill. Let it become an Act. We are seized of the matter. Has the President given assent to it?" the Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and
Justice Rekha Sharma asked the counsel for some of the alleged unauthorised guesthouses and restaurant owners.
    
The Bench, however, restrained the MCD from demolishing the alleged unauthorised and illegal constructions of the petitioner at East Patel Nagar until May 18, if the latter gave an undertaking to submit a "rectification plan" by that time.

 

"If they don't submit the rectification plan by that time you go ahead with the demolitions," the Bench told the MCD counsel who had opposed the grant of stay.

 

The Bench observed that it was not bothered about the passage of the Bill after it was irked by the submission of the petitioners' counsel that a stay be granted on the demolitions since Parliament had already passed a legislation to regularise the unuathorised and illegal constructions in the capital.

 

In a major relief to thousands of Delhiites reeling under the impact of demolitions, Parliament had approved the bill proposing a one-year moratorium on punitive action against unauthorised constructions in the national capital.
    
The Rajya Sabha passed the Delhi Laws (Special Provision), Bill, 2006 by a voice vote after members, cutting across party lines, demanded immediate stoppage of demolitions and sealing of shops.

 

The bill, piloted by Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, provides for status quo as on January 1, 2006 of unauthorised development in respect of mixed land use, construction beyond sanctioned plans and encroachments by slum-dwellers, hawkers and street vendors in the capital.

 

Replying to the debate, Reddy said the bill provides an opportunity to set the system right in Delhi and look at it from a new perspective.

 

The measure came after stepped up demands by affected persons and political parties to halt demolitions and sealing of commercial establishments in the capital.

 

Reddy said if millions of people in Delhi were on the wrong side of the law there must be something wrong with the law.

 

The earlier masterplans for Delhi reflected the grand vision of town planners, he said, adding but, now there was a need to accommodate harsh realities in them.

 

The minister said after passage of the legislation, the shops that were sealed would be de-sealed and shopkeepers, who had filed affidavits, would be allowed to run their businesses after June.

 

On the issue of 1400 unauthorised colonies in the city, he said his ministry had prepared a note for consideration of the Cabinet to regularise them.

 

Reddy said encroachments on government land would not be allowed either prospectively or retrospectively.

 

He said the crisis facing the city would have been avoided if the then NDA government had finalised the masterplan for 2021.

 

Reddy said the legislation was for a year only and it lays down the work for government agencies to deal with the situation in the city.