'Comm activities in 1500 colonies to stop'

New Delhi, Aug 27: In a major setback to the Centre and MCD, the Supreme Court today directed that all illegal commercial activities being carried out from about 1,500 unauthorised and unregularised colonies in Delhi shall stop within three weeks from today.

A three-judge bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, however, exempted commercial establishments having maximum area of 20 sq mt and falling under 24 exempted categories from sealing.

Earlier, there was an open confrontation between the Central government and the Supreme Court. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikas Singh appearing for the Centre openly accused the Court of passing the order without hearing the Union of India. He expressed surprise that it was only in India where Central government was not being heard by the Court and that the order shall create serious law and order problem in Delhi as the estimated population of unauthorised colonies is over 40 lakhs.

Justice Pasayat, however, made it clear that people living in unauthorised and unregularised colonies cannot be on a better footing than those living in regularised colonies.

The court warned Mr Singh with contempt of court action to which he responded by saying ''I am not afraid of going to jail for contempt of court but passing of orders by this court without hearing the Centre is not rule of law. At least hear the government before passing the order.'' Mr Singh also questioned the power of the court-appointed Monitoring Committee to issue directions to MCD to seal premises and contended that the committee was an extra-constitutional body.

He, however, conceded that this court can look into the whole issue.

The argument of the Centre in effect amounted to asserting that those living in 1500 unauthorised colonies which are yet to be regularised are on a better footing than the residents of regularised colonies.

Responding to the contention of ASG that even residential activities in these colonies was illegal and this court may pass blanket orders for removing all the colonies, the court said ''Why should we pass such orders? Do it if it is in your mind.'' Mr Singh said ''We only want to regularise these colonies and we do not want to uproot the people on such a large scale.'' The court repeatedly told Mr Singh not to raise his voice when Mr Singh vehemently contended that these colonies were not the subject matter of the Apex court order dated September 29, 2006 and that this court stated in the order that in the present petition it was not concerned with unauthorised and illegal constructions.

Such orders cannot be passed without hearing the Central government and without any competent petition having been filed in this court.

''We are not concerned with what the government is proposing to do in future. We are only concerned with the present policy of the government and its enforcement in accordence with law. We find no mention of unauthorised and unregularised colonies in new Master Plan Delhi, 2021,'' the court said.

MCD has got trapped in its own web as it was they who challenged Delhi High Court judgement holding that MCD had no power to seal illegal premises.

The Supreme Court set aside the High Court judgement and held that MCD had the power to seal illegal premises but also directed it to exercise these powers.

Around two lakh traders operating from these unauthorised colonies will now have to pack up within three weeks on their own. The Apex court was also annoyed with the fact that very few traders who got themselves registered for regularisation need not deposit the conversion charges and only Rs 97 crore had been paid as conversion charges by 20,000 such traders. The court made it clear that those who had not paid these charges cannot continue and must go immediately.

UNI