BABITA BADASARIA & ORS. Vs. PATNA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ORS
Supreme Court of India
Writ Petition (Civil), 337 of 2013, Judgment Date: Mar 10, 2016
REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 337 OF 2013
BABITA BADASARIA & ORS. PETITIONER(S)
:VERSUS:
PATNA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ORS. RESPONDENT(S)
O R D E R
This matter has been placed before us by the Office along with an Office
Report for directions.
Civil Appeal No.5470 of 2004, filed by M/s. Saket Housing Ltd., was
dismissed by this Court on 7-5-2013, after noting the fact that there was
enormous deviation from the sanctioned plan in construction of multi-
storeyed building. At that point of time this Court observed as follows:
“There being enormous deviations from the sanctioned plan in
constructing the multi-storeyed building, after following the due
process of law, construction beyond sanctioned plan was directed to be
demolished by the Patna Regional Development Authority. Deviation is
shocking and can be undertaken only by such person who considers
himself to be law unto himself. One of the deviations is that against
sanction of 24 flats in 6 floors at the rate of 4 flats per floor, 9 floors
have been constructed having 6 flats every floor.”
Accordingly this Court had directed for demolition of the said unauthorized
construction dismissing the civil appeal and that order has attained
finality. Thereafter, a writ petition, being Writ Petition (Civil) No.337
of 2013 was filed by the petitioners/ owners of the residential flats in
Santosha Complex, claiming themselves to be the owners of the portion which
was directed to be demolished. This Court refused to recall the orders so
passed for demolition of the unauthorized construction and directed M/s.
Saket Housing Ltd. (respondent No.4) to deposit a sum of Rs.25 crores or
furnish the Bank Guarantee in the Registry of this Court. Steps were taken
accordingly in the matter. Subsequent thereto, the said writ petition was
disposed of by this Court by an order dated July 9, 2014 when this Court
was pleased to dismiss the writ petition holding that the writ petition was
absolutely misconceived and passed the following order:
“Having heard learned counsel for the parties and in the facts and
circumstances of the case, we are of the opinion that ends of justice shall
be met by directing payment @ Rs. 6,000/- per sq. ft. to the persons who
shall be affected on account of the demolition. Those persons shall
be entitled to have the amount @ Rs. 6,000/- per sq. ft. of
the carpet area, i.e., the area transferred to individuals and not the
common area.
For ascertaining the carpet area of each of the persons, we appoint Mr.
Justice S.N. Jha, former Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High
Court, as the Commissioner.
The Patna Municipal Corporation shall within one week furnish to the
Commissioner the area/ flats to be demolished in terms of the Order dated
7.05.2013 passed in Civil Appeal No. 5470 of 2004. The Commissioner shall
ascertain through the agency of his choice the carpet area in possession of
each of the persons going to be affected by the demolition. He will not
decide inter se disputes between rival
claimants. In such cases he will determine the carpet area. On such report,
the Registry of the Court will earmark sum calculated on the aforesaid
basis and deposit in an interest bearing account. The amount along
with interest shall be disbursed to the person establishing the right
before a Court of competent jurisdiction. As regards others, on
the report of the Commissioner, the Registry of this Court shall
disburse the amount calculated on the aforesaid basis to all those persons
given by the Commissioner. The Commissioner may indicate the
amount one would be entitled calculated on aforesaid basis.
The functionaries of the Patna Municipal Corporation and the State
Government shall provide to the Commissioner all facilities as required by
him. Within four weeks of the payment, all those persons shall vacate the
premises in their occupation and hand it over to the Patna Municipal
Corporation. In cases having inter se dispute between rival claimants, they
shall also vacate the same within four weeks of submission
of the report and shall not wait for the disbursement of amount. In case
any one of them does not do so, he will be evicted by using force.
Immediately thereafter all concerned will act in accordance with
the directions given by this Court in its Order dated 7.05.2013 passed in
Civil Appeal No.5470 of 2004.
After the disbursement of the amount, as aforesaid, left over amount,
if any, shall be returned to respondent No. 4.
The Bank guarantee(s) furnished by respondent No. 4 be encashed and the
disbursement, as aforesaid, be made. The encashed amount be deposited
in an interest bearing account and the disbursement be made from that from
time to time. At the first instance, one of the Bank guarantees, i.e., Rs.
15 Crore be encashed.
We fix the fee of the Commissioner @ Rs. 2 lac per sitting and that shall
be disbursed from the amount already deposited by respondent
No.4.
For the present, a sum of Rs.10 lac be disbursed
to Mr. Justice S.N. Jha forthwith. Rest of the fee be paid to him whenever
asked for.
All these exercise including demolition be completed within a period of
ten weeks.
We make it clear that any deviation in carrying out this order shall be
viewed seriously.
The writ petition is disposed of with the directions aforesaid.”
In view of the disposal of the writ petition, all the I.As. which were
filed till then, were disposed of without any order. Subsequently, further
I.As., being I.A. Nos.7-14 & 15 were filed which were disposed of by the
following order passed on 13.8.2014:
“Reference may be made to the Order dated 9.7.2014 whereby this Court very
categorically held that after the Writ Petition was finally disposed of, no
further orders need be passed on the I.As. We are of the same view that
after disposal of the Writ Petition, I.As. should not be entertained.
Hence, all I.As. are hereby dismissed.
However, if the petitioners have any grievance with regard to measurement
etc., they may approach the Commissioner and put their grievance.”
Subsequent thereto, I.A. No.16 was filed which was also disposed of on
8.9.2014, clarifying the order dated 13.8.2014, to the extent that the
word “Commissioner” used in the last but one line to the order shall refer
to “Ld. Court Commissioner”. Thereafter, I.A. No.17 was filed for
condonation of delay in renewing the Bank Guarantee which was allowed by
order dated 28.11.2014.
Thereafter, Office Report for directions was placed before this Court and
an interim report was submitted by the learned Court Commissioner and on
22.02.2015 this Court requested the learned Court Commissioner to submit
the final report on or before 9.03.2015 and the Bank Guarantee was extended
for another 10 weeks.
Parties, thereafter, prayed for report of the learned Court Commissioner to
be furnished to them and on such prayer, an order was passed on 6.04.2015
to provide copies of the reports of the learned Court Commissioner to all
the learned counsel appearing for the parties in the matter.
Thereafter, a proposal was filed before this Court by the petitioners and
the matter was adjourned from time to time. The Patna Municipal Corporation
was also directed to consult the Engineers and give suggestions with regard
to the suggestions placed by the parties before this Court.
The proposals which were given on behalf of the petitioners/flat owners
were as follows:
“(A) Direct permanent sealing/ demolition of the mezzanine floor so that
the FAR so released can be made available to the flat owners/petitioners by
considering the second floor as the first floor and in the same way,
considering the seventh floor as the sixth floor;
(B) Direct the Ld. Court Commissioner to work out the number of flat owners
whose areas can be saved in view of the fact that the mezzanine floor is
sealed and is not being utilized towards the FAR and also in terms of
compounding vide order of the Vice-Chairman, Patna Municipal Corporation
dated 24.02.2000, which has become final after the dismissal of the
builder’s Civil Appeal No.5470 of 2004 by this Hon’ble Court vide its
judgment dated 07.05.2013.”
Patna Municipal Corporation filed its response to the proposal dated
31.8.2015 filed by the petitioners and it was further submitted before us
that the proposals given by the petitioners cannot be accepted and the same
should be rejected by this Court in their entirety. It is submitted on
behalf of the Municipal Corporation that the so called Mezzanine Floor,
which is actually the First Floor of the building, be completely sealed and
not be counted as a floor, has no merit. It was further submitted on behalf
of the Municipal Corporation that it is not possible to accept the
suggestion of the petitioners as the Mezzanine Floor is a complete floor
built over 100% of the Ground Floor. As per the rules, a Mezzanine Floor
can only be one if it is over 1/3rd of the Ground Floor area. Therefore,
the said proposal is not accepted by the Municipal Corporation Authorities.
It is further contended that the building was sanctioned for Ground and six
floors (G+6 floors). The height of the building is important because if the
proposal of the petitioners is accepted, then the building will be Ground+7
Floors or more with one floor (the so called Mezzanine Floor) which is not
being counted. It is further pointed out that the sanctioned plan is G+6
Floors and it may not be safe to allow it to rise over the number of floors
for which the foundation has been laid by the Builder – Respondent No.4.
Accordingly, it is submitted that it would not be safe to allow compounding
of any part of the construction of the building. It is further submitted
that in case of sealing of the Mezzanine Floor, it is necessary to monitor
the same in the future. It is further stated that it may not be proper to
do so on account of the severe deviation in the Floor Area Ratio (FAR),
which in the building is 5.459 as against the sanctioned FAR of 2.99,
further the height of the Building was illegally increased from the
sanctioned height of 21 metres to 31.05 metres. Instead of G+6 Floors, the
Builder has constructed G+9 Floors. It is further submitted that it is also
contrary to the notification and guidelines issued by the Airport Authority
of India as the height of the building was increased by the Builder to
beyond 23 metres without any sanction or approval of the Airport Authority
of India. It is further submitted that it would not be possible to
demolish the so called Mezzanine Floor. In these circumstances, it is
submitted on behalf of the Patna Municipal Corporation that the illegal
construction should be demolished.
We have considered the Report of the Patna Municipal Corporation filed
before this Court. We have also duly considered the Report dated 24.02.2015
filed by the Court Commissioner. However, we do not accept part of the
Report which has been specifically stated as follows:
“(13) In any case, I am inclined to think that as the Builder was pursuing
the legal remedies – by way of appeal before the Appellate Tribunal or the
writ petition/ LPA before the High Court – bona fide, the issue of
compounding should not be treated as a closed option. If it is allowable
under the bye-laws of the PRDA/PMC, the Hon’ble Court may give a fresh look
at the same if it results in regularization of a few flats of the owners
who purchased them bona fide from their hard-earned money and are now on
the verge of being displaced.
(14) To conclude the discussions, I would respectfully recommend that
while the offer of compounding may be allowed, the option of removal of the
floor claimed to be mezzanine or the First Floor by either side – may be
considered. A favourable decision on these two points may save two full
floors i.e. 14 flats of bona fide purchasers, without compromising the FAR
parameters. It may be mentioned that de hors the question of FAR, height of
the building is not in issue. It may also be mentioned that three flats out
of seven flats on the top floor – facing imminent demolition, belong to the
Builder themselves.”
After the final report, any suggestion which has been given by the Court
Commissioner only to make an illegal construction as a legal construction
by compounding the same by paying compounding fee, is totally unacceptable
to us. In our opinion, the issue of compounding is a closed chapter as the
writ petition as well as the appeal have already been dismissed by this
Court. In these circumstances, we do not find any reason to change our mind
and allow to keep this illegal construction which is contrary to law. We
have already expressed our views in our order passed at the time of
disposal of the writ petition. In these circumstances, we do not intend to
pass any further order in this matter. We only direct that steps shall be
taken by the respondent authorities/Patna Municipal Corporation in the
matter in terms of our order dated 9th July, 2014 passed in the said writ
petition.
We, however, make it clear that at the time of disposal of the writ
petition, we had directed payment at the rate of Rs.6,000/- per sq. ft. to
the persons who shall be affected on account of the demolition. Since the
matter is concluded today, we enhance the said rate from Rs.6,000/- per sq.
ft. to Rs.7000/- per sq. ft.. We further direct that all the flat owners
will get their compensation and such compensation shall be paid within a
period of six weeks from date and they will vacate the premises in their
occupation, to give effect to the order so passed by us, within a period of
one month thereafter.
We further direct that the Patna Municipal Corporation shall demolish the
unauthorized structures within a period of four months and thereafter shall
file a compliance report before this Court.
…....................................J
(Pinaki Chandra Ghose)
…...................................J
(R.K. Agrawal)
New Delhi;
March 10, 2016.
ITEM NO.1A COURT NO.09 SECTION X
(For orders)
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No. 337/2013
BABITA BADASARIA & ORS. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
PATNA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ORS. Respondent(s)
Date : 10/03/2016 This petition was called on for pronouncement
of orders today.
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Devashish Bharuka, AOR
For Respondent(s) Mr. Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi, AOR
Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AOR
Ms. Tanya Shree, Adv.
Mr. Kaushik Poddar, AOR
Mr. Prem Prakash, AOR
*****
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose pronounced the reportable
order of the Bench comprising His Lordship and Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.K.
Agrawal.
This Court made the following directions in terms of the signed
reportable order.
“12. .... .... In these circumstances, we do not intend to pass any further
order in this matter. We only direct that steps shall be taken by the
respondent authorities/Patna Municipal Corporation in the matter in terms
of our order dated 9th July, 2014 passed in the said writ petition.
13. We, however, make it clear that at the time of disposal of the writ
petition, we had directed payment at the rate of Rs.6,000/- per sq. ft. to
the persons who shall be affected on account of the demolition. Since the
matter is concluded today, we enhance the said rate from Rs.6,000/- per sq.
ft. to Rs.7000/- per sq. ft.. We further direct that all the flat owners
will get their compensation and such compensation shall be paid within a
period of six weeks from date and they will vacate the premises in their
occupation, to give effect to the order so passed by us, within a period of
one month thereafter.
14. We further direct that the Patna Municipal Corporation shall demolish
the unauthorized structures within a period of four months and thereafter
shall file a compliance report before this Court.”
(R.NATARAJAN) (SNEH LATA SHARMA)
Court Master Court Master
(Signed reportable order is placed on the file)