The Madras High Court has conceded to have “completely failed” in its attempts to prevent illegal/unauthorised constructions put up by individuals in collusion with government officials concerned, because of the money power possessed by the violators.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel lamented that the authorities ensured strict enforcement of the rules only against the economically weaker sections of society but turn a blind eye to blatant flouting of rules by the affluent. “This shows that only the mighty, the rich, and the powerful can survive in this State, and they will be helped by these enforcement agencies to the maximum extent possible,” the Bench said while deciding to continue the fight against such illegalities without losing hope.
“Though this court has been making repeated attempts to stop flagrant violations, with the active collusion of the officials concerned, we must acknowledge that our attempts have completely failed because of the money power that the violators possess. However, we do not propose to stop making our attempts since we have the faith and hope that we will succeed at some point of time,” the judges wrote.
The observations were made while disposing of a writ petition filed by former Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan complaining about the noise pollution due to the laying of pile foundation for an 11-storey private hospital on St. Mary’s Road in Alwarpet, Chennai.
After the filing of the case on January 2, 2024, the judges learnt that the construction works had begun even before issuance of building plan approval by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), but the latter had not issued a stop work notice until the court took cognisance of the issue.
The records revealed that the Headmaster of St. Francis Xavier’s Matriculation School, located close to the construction site, had complained to the Chennai Collector as early as September 4, 2023 regarding the cracks that had developed in the school buildings because of the nearby construction work.
The letter was forwarded to CMDA officials on November 7, 2023. An inspection, carried out on November 16, 2023, revealed that the piling works was under way at the site, but the officials referred the issue to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) for further action.
The GCC, in turn, issued a notice to the developer on December 11, 2023 and called for the production of the sanctioned building plan. The developer replied to the notice on on December 12, 2023, stating that the process of obtaining the sanction was in the final stages, and no construction work would be carried out till the plan gets sanctioned.
The GCC accepted the solemn undertaking and did not pursue further action though the reality was otherwise. On the basis of an interim order passed in the present writ petition, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had conducted an inspection at the construction site on February 2, 2024 and found that the ambient noise levels exceeded the prescribed standards.
“It is therefore clear that even on February 2, 2024 the construction work had not been stopped,” the judges said.
Expressing dismay over the sorry state of affairs, they said: “We are not new to this. Wherever there is a miniature violation of a person attempting to put up a 10X10 building, 50 or 60 Corporation officials in 10 or 15 SUVs descend on the location attempting to stop the construction. Though this development is carried out in one of the main arterial roads of Chennai, the officials have turned a blind eye.”
The judges went on to write: “We are aware that wherever there is even a small development work and 10 bricks or one tonne of jelly stones is put on the platform, a red Innova car of the police goes there immediately, and the person developing the site is warned to remove the materials. He is also made to pay the police a few thousand rupees. This is a regular occurrence in the city. Even that has not happened in the present case, where development of such magnitude, without approval, was going on for more than six months.”
However, since the developer has now obtained the building plan approval, the judges permitted it to continue the construction subject to strict vigil by the CMDA, GCC, and the TNPCB. They directed the developer, GCC, and the TNPCB to pay costs of ₹25 lakh, ₹5 lakh, and ₹2 lakh respectively to the Adyar Cancer Institute (WIA) and report to the court on March 13.
Though the judges directed the CMDA too to pay ₹5 lakh to the writ petitioner, they recorded his submission that this money too could be paid to the WIA. They also directed the TNPCB to frame guidelines to keep in check noise pollution created by large-scale constructions in residential areas and submit them before the court on March 13.
