CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has suggested to authorities to fix premium rates, i.e. five times the original cost for supply of essential services, such as electricity, for those who violate building rules.
”Electricity supply may be an essential service for any person, but certainly it shall not be to the violators and it has got to be fixed at the premium rate till the building is brought back in accordance with the plan,” a division bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and D Bharatha Chakravarthy has said.
The authorities/court must ensure that while passing interim/final orders in the application, the electricity charges, property tax, water and sewage charges must be five times to the violators, till such time the violation is set right and the building is rectified in terms of the plan. Such stringent conditions by the authorities in the application that are pending before it under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act,1971 or any other provisions of the Act would make the violators to adhere to the strict norms of construction in accordance with the plan. If exorbitant rates are levied, it will affect the monthly budget of the violators and they will think twice to violate, as the charges under the three heads — electricity, property tax and water charges — are the recurring ones, the judges said.
The bench was dismissing a writ appeal from one, B Kanchana of Nerkundram here challenging the lock and seal orders of the authorities.
Persons applying for approval for building construction must give a reasonable time to authorities to consider their pleas. Any request for an instant approval will pave way for ‘under the table dealing’ and in that process, the officials will flourish and their belly will get doubled with the money received as bribe. No application for approval after completion of the building can be entertained, as it would amount to putting a cart before a horse. The authorities shall also inspect the building from the basement level itself, so that the setbacks, as suggested by them/plan can be adhered to and in any event, the FSI/area cannot be enhanced, the bench said.
The bench also emphasized that courts must be slow in granting relief, much less interim relief, in cases where violators approach the court, as even a direction for disposal of the representation will give rise to another round of litigation. The judges must ensure that no leniency is shown to the violators, the bench added.
Source: Press Trust of India