HC refuses to interfere with demolition of illegal construction orders

Kolkata: Following the tragic incident that left about nine dead and 17 injured after an illegal construction collapsed at Garden Reach, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with any demolition order passed on illegal constructions.

On Tuesday, a lawyer had approached Justice Amrita Sinha’s bench seeking to be heard on the demolition order passed wherein the concerned party was not made party to the case. During the mentioning, Justice Sinha refused to interfere and stated: “Court is not giving you any leave in any demolition matters…Let human lives be saved.” Similarly, in two other demolitions of unauthorised construction matters, Justice Sinha refused to interfere.

On Sunday night, an under-construction multi-storey building collapsed on the nearby shanty in Garden Reach area of Ward 134 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Nine people, including two women, died and 17 were injured. Following the incident, KMC has instructed its Building department to ascertain the cause of collapse and conduct a survey to determine the number of illegal constructions within the civic body area so that action can be taken against these.

Meanwhile, an application for permission was made in the Division Bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam to file a case regarding the Garden Reach incident. The petitioner claimed that there are several illegal constructions in the area but the state did not take any action with regards to it. The petitioner has reportedly requested a report regarding illegal construction of houses in the Kolkata Port area. According to a news agency, the hearing of the matter is scheduled to take place on Thursday.