The Delhi High Court condemned the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday for its inability to control unauthorised construction in the city and to carry out the court’s orders. It also claimed that the city’s complete “mayhem” was caused by civic body officials’ carelessness in exercising supervision.
The authorities, according to a bench consisting of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela and Acting Chief Justice Manmohan, “lacked moral courage” and the power to issue an order and see it through to completion.
The court voiced its disapproval of the officials’ “cosmetic demolition,” which involved puncturing the roof or tying a thread around a building to create a seal. It emphasised that there was a serious and malicious motive for this neglect.
“When we say something, it gets implemented. Your senior officers are unable to call the shot. How does the JE (junior engineer) or AE (assistant engineer), not obtain the order of deputy commissioner (DC)? It cannot be, there is some deeper malice here… There is something wrong in the administrative structure over here. The fundamental problem seems to be that your officers are lacking the moral courage and moral authority to pass an order and getting it implemented,” the bench said to MCD commissioner, who was present virtually.
The court also said that this neglect was not good for civil society and was wrong. “It cannot be that your officers do not obey your command. This is complete… mayhem. It is not good for civil society and it’s not that it is confined to one officer or one region. There are some very, very deep causes… All of this is being done for some reason. This is what it seems to be,” the court said.
The court’s decision came in response to a petition filed by a single person named Santosh, who asked the MCD and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for orders to seal and demolish an unauthorised building located in Deep Vihar, Delhi, as well as to cut off the property’s water and electricity supplies. Three demolition orders had been carried out, but the property in question had been built, according to the appeal filed through attorney Nagender Kumar Vashisht. It further stated that despite telling the authorities about the development, MCD and DDA officials had done nothing to stop it.
In the plea, the high court requested the attendance of the MCD commissioner and DC Narela zone on August 7.
The MCD commissioner testified during the court that he had met with the DCs and had both sensitised them to the potential consequences of their actions—namely, carrying out “cosmetic demolitions”—and threatened them with legal action.
The court called for the need to fix responsibility, saying that the need of the hour was to bring in clarity and issue “clear cut office orders” and “standard operating procedures” regarding monitoring unauthorised constructions. “Please issue clear cut office orders and SOPs… There is a certain amount of disconnect at the ground level,” the bench lamented.
As a result, the court also went ahead and sent notices to the DC, the MCD for the Narela zone, and his predecessor explaining why they shouldn’t be charged with contempt of court.
The court has previously expressed displeasure with MCD for its inability to control unlawful construction in the Capital.
While transferring the probe into the deaths of three IAS aspirants at Old Rajendra Nagar, Delhi, to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the high court earlier this month lambasted MCD for its failure to implement its order regarding setting up of a mechanism to ensure “systematic, transparent and even-handed” action against complaints of unauthorised construction and using technology to monitor such constructions.
The MCD commissioner was chastised by the high court in July for unapproved and illegal constructions in the Capital, and the court claimed that the courts were being used as a “pawn.” It said that the Capital’s blocked water outlets as a result of unauthorised building was one of the causes of Delhi’s flooding and urged the head of the civic body to take harsh measures against the personnel.
Indeed, the high court declared in November of last year that the Capital’s city administration had neglected to enforce regulations and had “turned a blind eye” to unauthorised development.
