No floor-wise nod to building plans in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 3

The authorities of the Chandigarh Administration cannot 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.

Next hearing after 2 weeks

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

“The order, dated February 18, 2020, passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a civil writ petition (No. 18559) in 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 a senior standing counsel representing the UT that 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 a notice to the Chandigarh Administration on petitions filed by the Residents Welfare Association, Sector 10, and 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Such apartments were being constructed in the city despite the Chandigarh Apartment Rules of 2001 having been repealed, they said, adding that the rampant illegal construction was putting undue pressure on the planned infrastructure of the city such as water, sewerage, roads and electricity.

They said virtually every second/third dwelling unit in Sector 10 to 30 was converted into three apartments and now the builders were focusing 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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