AP High Court says Building Penalisation Scheme not unconstitutional

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, June 8: The AP High Court on Monday declared that the Building Penalisation Scheme introduced by the government was not unconstitutional. A division bench comprising Justice V. Eswaraiah and Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar upheld the scheme with its stringent conditions. The bench, in its 87-page verdict, observed that while regularising the deviations, the authorities cannot compromise deviations with regard to open spaces, land use rules and safety norms.

The court set aside the proposal of the government not to insist on structural stability condition for buildings which are below 15 metres. Further, the bench directed the government that no structure can be regularised if it violated the land use indicated in zonal regularisation. This direction will prohibit the authorities from regularising non-residential buildings situated in a residential zone.

Penalty of 10 per cent of the total building cost was too little and felt that it will encourage unscrupulous builders to get away by paying the fine, said the bench, and added that when appropriate rules are framed, the fine should be increased to such an extent so that it will act as a deterrent. The court did not favour the contention of one of the petitioners that the builders must be made to pay money for regularisation.

It pointed out that the neighbours and other people affected will not lose their civil rights just because the penal amount was collected from a violator. It said that the affected persons are free to ventilate their grievance before a competent authority. The bench felt that “There shall be an appropriate monitoring authority and it is better if this authority can acts as an appellate authority.” The court gave this pronouncement while disposing off a batch of writ petitions filed challenging the Act which amended Municipalities Act, Municipal Corporations Act and Urban Areas Development Act and also the GO 901, brought out by the government by framing the rules for the penalisation scheme. Several citizens also approached the court complaining that their rights are being violated in the name of the regularisation.

The judges did not appreciate the action of the government in giving relaxations for regularisation with regard to the illegal constructions coming up in open spaces in municipal areas.