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2000 DIGILAW 777 (DEL)

ASHOK KUMAR BANDHWAR v. MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF DELHI

2000-09-05

B.A.KHAN

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B. A. Khan ( 1 ) PETITIONER,an owner of adjacent property filed CWP No. 1283/ 99 requiring respondents 1 and 2 to restrain respondent No. 3 and 4 from carrying out alleged unauthorised construction at property No. 43-A/l, Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi, Writ Court disposed of this petition by order dated 30. 4. 1999 providing as under: "respondents shall carry out the construction on the property No. 43-A/l, Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi in accordance with the valid sanctioned plans and should the respondent undertake construction otherwise than in accordance with the Act, Rules and Bye-laws the respondent MCD shall take appropriate steps in accordance with law. " ( 2 ) PETITIONER has filed this contempt petition alleging that respondent Nos. 3 and 4 were still going ahead with alleged illegal construction in collusion and connivance with respondent Nos. 1 and 2 which impinged on their easementary rights. Legal notice was also served on respondent Nos. 1 and 2 informing them about this but they had failed to take action in the matter and had thus wilfully disobeyed the Court order. ( 3 ) RESPONDENT No. 1 has filed counter denying the charge and has explained the Engineers had gone to the site and the construction was stopped and the matter reported to SHO also. ( 4 ) RESPONDENTS 3 and 4 on their part have claimed that they were entitled to carry out the construction under the deemed valid building permission. Their case is that building permission was granted to them way back in 1970 which was valid till 3. 8. 1972 and that they had satisfied all requirements to revalidate it and had paid a fee of Rs. 28,350. 00- in this regard but since MCD had failed to revalidate it within prescribed period of 60 days it should be deemed to have been validated. In other words it is asserted by them that they were raising the construction in accordance with law. ( 5 ) MR. Kaul, learned Senior Counsel for petitioner submitted that MCD was taking conflicting stands in the matter. On the one hand it had admitted that respondent Nos. 3 and 4 had undertaken unauthorised construction which was stopped and on the other it was justifying it on the plea that it was compoundable. ( 6 ) LEARNED Senior Counsel Mr. Kaul, learned Senior Counsel for petitioner submitted that MCD was taking conflicting stands in the matter. On the one hand it had admitted that respondent Nos. 3 and 4 had undertaken unauthorised construction which was stopped and on the other it was justifying it on the plea that it was compoundable. ( 6 ) LEARNED Senior Counsel Mr. K. K. Buchhar representing respondents 3 and 4 on the other hand pointed out that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the Contempt Court to examine the validity or otherwise of building plan and in case petitioner was convinced of its invalidity he could take appropriate remedy in the matter. ( 7 ) COURT order dated 30. 4. 1999 allows respondents 3 and 4 to carry on the construction in accordance with valid sanctioned plan and if they failed to do so then requires MCD to take action against them under law respondents claim is that they were carrying out construction under a deemed valid sanctioned plan. Whether their claim was good or bad admittedly cannot be determined in the present proceedings. Moreover should they be found constructing without a valid sanctioned plan, it was for the MCD to take necessary steps against them under the Court order. Therefore, as it is they cannot be charged of any breach of Court order as of now unless it was conclusively established that their proposed construction was unsupported by any valid building plan. ( 8 ) NO case of contempt against respondent Nos. 3 and 4 is accordingly made out. This petition is dismissed and proceedings dropped. However, it shall be open to the petitioner to prove and establish by appropriate remedy that respondent Nos. 3 and 4 were not holding valid sanctioned building plan and were carrying on construction in the absence of any such plan.