'No floor-wise approval for building plans in Chandigarh for now'

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 3

The authorities of the Chandigarh Administration can’t give floor-wise approval for building plans in the Union Territory for now as the Supreme Court has ordered continuation of a two-year-old order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue.

“The order dated 18.02.2020 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in CWP (Civil Writ Petition) No. 18559 of 2016 shall continue to operate until further orders,” a Bench led by Justice LN Rao said in an order on March 31.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had in its February 18, 2020 order recorded the statement of Senior Standing Counsel representing the Union Territory of Chandigarh that the floor-wise building plans would not be approved by the authorities concerned. “Taking the said statement on record, we do not find any reason to pass any order in this regard at this stage,” the high court had noted.

The top court – which issued notice to the Chandigarh Administration on petitions filed by the Resident Welfare Association, Sector 10, and one Abhay Singh Gill and another – posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.

The petitioners pointed out how a large number of apartments were being illegally constructed on single dwelling units in Chandigarh by unscrupulous builders and the authorities were turning a blind eye to it.

Such apartments were being constructed in the city despite the Chandigarh Apartment Rules of 2001 having been repealed, they said, adding the rampant illegal construction was putting undue pressure on the city’s planned infrastructure such as water, sewerage, roads and electricity.

They alleged that virtually every second/third dwelling unit in sectors 10 to 30 is converted into three apartments in most of the sectors and now the builders were focussing on the remaining sectors.

The petitioners have urged the top court to direct the UT Administration not to permit conversion of residential plots into apartments.

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