Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The Corporation of City of Panaji finally started the demolition Second floor of Trends showroom, opposite Captain of Ports.
The demolition was carried in presence of Revenue officials, CCP officials and the police, this morning.
The Supreme Court had ordered the demolition of an illegal construction on the second floor of a building in Panaji’s commercial conservation zone, observing that violation of municipal regulations on construction must be met with an ‘iron fist’.
Petitioner Tahir Isani had approached the Supreme Court against the judgment passed by the high court of Bombay at Goa in January. It had directed that the structure on the second floor of a building on MG Road, opposite the directorate of fisheries, be demolished within a period of six weeks. The high court upheld the order of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), which had order the demolition in 2009.
While declining to interfere with the judgment passed by the HC, the SC observed, “The violation of municipal regulations on construction must be met with an iron fist. That deviation from the regularisation by compounding is only an exception. Only deviations that are bona fide, or when the benefit of demolition would be less compared to the disadvantage suffered, can the exception be applied.”
After CCP ordered the demolition, Isani had filed an appeal before the minister for urban development. In 2010, the appellate authority set aside the demolition. CCP had then approached the HC, which found that its order was legal and proper and warranted no interference from an appellate authority.
The high court had found that Isani had paid no heed to the stoppage order issued by CCP to stop ‘ongoing illegal construction work immediately’, failing which it threatened action.
“Both the respondent and the appellate authority ignore the vital issue of compliance with municipal bye-laws, rules and regulations,” the High Court had stated.
