Don’t entertain plea to protect unauthorised structures: High Court to civil courts
| Date :06-Sep-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
In a major jolt to serial litigants and unscrupulous elements misusing the protection of civil courts to save their unauthorised structures, High Court has directed all the judges and judicial officers within Maharashtra to ensure that no undue protection should be granted to an illegal or unauthorised structure. In the instant case, when ad-interim stay was granted by a civil court, there was only ground floor, albeit constructed illegally while in next two years, additional nine floors were constructed. In fact, civil courts are flooded with suits against action by civic body to clear encroachment or remove unauthorised structures. However, in most such cases governed by a Municipal Statute, the ad-interim stay is obtained by concealing the fact of sanction by competent authority and matters drag on for years, defeating the very purpose of action against illegal constructions within urban areas.
A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Pradip Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre while clarifying the legal position for all courts in the State made it clear that a prima-facie courts must satisfy that “the structure which is being targeted is an authorised structure.” “The plaint must make an averment of the sanction obtained from the Corporation and must make an averment that the structure targeted is prima-facie governed by the sanction.
Merely pointing out deficiencies in the notice or the authority of the person issuing the notice is neither here nor there,” the High Court asserted. Thus, the ‘sine qua non’ (a necessary condition) of such kinds of suits is a positive assertion made with reference to the sanctioned building plans, the High Court clarified while directing the corporation to place copy of this order before the civil court with a direction to lower court to take proper decision within a week thereafter.