Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed the Additional Director of Panchayats-I to decide within four weeks the appeal filed by late Shalini Madkaikar challenging the demolition order passed against 12 “illegal structures” situated within 300 metres from the centrally protected monument Basilica of Bom Jesus Church at Old Goa.
By a decision dated April 24, 2023, the Se Old Goa Village Panchayat ordered the removal of these structures because they were constructed without the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) approval, the village panchayat’s construction license, or the TCP Department’s technical clearance.
In its demolition order, the panchayat had indicated that all of the buildings were brand-new and that no paperwork had been obtained to authorize their construction.
However, Madkaikar was able to get the Director of Panchayats to grant an ex-parte ad-interim stay of the demolition order at the first hearing through an appeal within 15 days.
Since there had been no hearing for nearly a year, Vasco Seby Dias went to the High Court to ask for orders for the authorities to demolish the 12 illegal structures in Old Goa and cut off their water and electricity supplies.
However, Tiswadi Mamlatdar emphasized in his report from November 2024 that these structures must be removed since they will create a traffic jam during the St. Francis Xavier Exposition. Since the ex-parte stay prevented the execution of the demolition order, North Goa Collector Sneha Gitte, IAS, wrote to the Additional Director of Panchayats-I and the Director of Panchayats, Panaji, requesting that they make an appeal decision as soon as possible.
Vasco Dais then petitioned the High Court in a Miscellaneous Civil Application to have the 12 unlawful buildings sealed.
The Court ruled in the application that there were no grounds for the appeal before the Additional Director of Panchayat not to be considered on its merits and instructed that the appeal be decided quickly and within a time frame of four weeks.
