A division bench of the Gujarat High Court led by Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy has asked that status quo be maintained in connection with a Public Interest Litigation filed against the alleged illegal construction on a plot of land of Porbandar Nagarpalika.
The petition has challenged the Nagarpalika's nod to a businessman to carry out construction on a plot of land despite adverse remarks from the collector as well as the chief officer of the municipal council.
Appearing for the petitioner, lawyer Kanan Jadeja said the civic body got an application first in 2016 seeking permission for construction on the plot in question. The applicant started construction work without waiting for green signal from the civic body, who then issued a stay notice against the private company in November 2017.
The notice pointed out that there were deficiencies in the plan submitted by the applicant and they needed to rectify the errors within eight weeks. The Porbandar Nagarpalika town planning committee, however, granted permission to the company to initiate construction work despite objections from its own chief officer.
The chief officer then appealed to the district collector who ruled in his favour following which the Nagarpalika again asked the builder to stop the construction. The petitioner told the court that the private entity continued with the construction work even after the civic body asked them to stop. The petitioner then sought information about the project through RTI and on the basis of the information wrote to the authorities several times in the past urging them to stop the construction, but to no avail.
However, when the administration did not take any action in the matter, the petitioner moved court to stop the illegal construction. The petitioner blamed the lethargic attitude of the council for allowing the construction work to go on without permission.
PETITONER CLAIMS...
After administration did not take any action in the matter, the petitioner moved HC to stop the illegal construction. The petitioner blamed the lethargic attitude of the council for the same.
