HC asks owners of basements in GK to produced sanctioned plans

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) The Delhi High Court has directed the owners of the basements in Greater Kailash market, which were sealed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) last month, to produce their sanctioned plans to get them de-sealed.

The court last week directed the MCD to produce the layout plan of the area and asked DDA and the MCD to clarify as to how many shops were there in existence when the area was classified as the Local Shopping Complex (LSC).

A petition was filed last week by the M-Block basement owners to get their basements de-sealed as the Master Plan 2021 does not prohibit commercial activities in the basements.

A special division bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Rekha Sharma after hearing the arguments from local residents, basement owners, DDA and MCD, directed that in the absence of a sanctioned plan for the basements, these shall be deemed illegal and commercial activities cannot be allowed there.

The bench directed the basement owners to file within a week affidavits stating whether there is any sanction plan and if any competition certificate was obtained by them in respect of the construction of the basements and to what use basements are put.

Mr Gaurav Puri, counsel for the M-block Residents Welfare Association, told the court that the basements are unauthorised and the construction was on even below the road and corridor which form part of the public land.

The basement owners use power generators and the emission caused by them was deteriorating the health of the residents there, he said.

T N Tiku and Promila Badhwar had filed a petition in the Delhi High court that the M-Block market was allotted for shops-cum residence in which ground floor was sanctioned for the shops and rest were for residential purposes. But there was no plan of basement therefore the basements should be termed illegal, the petition said.

UNI