illegal construction and building rules

Illegal Construction and Building Rules in West Bengal and Kolkata

There are many illegal buildings or houses constructed every year in the country which doesn’t have any permit from the Municipal Corporations or Panchayats or from other competent authorities to construct such building or house. Illegal Construction is a construction which has no permit to construct buildings or houses due to some serious reasons. Today, we see that there is a large increase in the population of the country and for this reason, a number of illegal constructions have come up. These Illegal Constructions have created many problems in society as well as in the country. So, state government and the Central Government have formulated different laws to handle these types of matters.

Some Environmental Risk:

  1. These illegal constructions lead to landslides.
  2. It leads to deforestation.
  3. It also damages agriculture.
  4. It creates problems in the administration of the society and so on.

An authority that looks in these Matters:

There is Municipal Corporation Tribunal that looks into the matters of illegal construction and resolves such matters or disputes.

Reporting an illegal construction:

  1. If there is an illegal construction then, one can go to the municipal corporation of the city and can lodge a complaint with the proper procedure. Any individual can approach the Municipal Corporation and can file a complaint if they find that any building or house is built which is considered as illegal construction since it has no permit to construct it.
  2. The next step is that the Municipal Corporation will send a notice to the owner of the building or house or property.

Process of notice:

  1. Municipal Corporation or any other competent authority sends a notice to an individual who resides in the illegally constructed building or constructing a building which has no permission to do so and he is also given time to reply for the cause.
  2. An individual is also given time to obtain a stay order from the court.
  3. If the individual does nothing or does not take any step against it then this construction becomes liable for demolition.
  4. Our government has also made a platform to lodge a complaint online against these types of illegal construction.
  5. Any individual can approach the police for help in these types of matters to prevent illegal constructions.

Format of a complaint letter:

To, Municipal Corporation of (eg.Delhi) (Address where unauthorized construction is going on), (eg. Delhi) – (pin code) Sub:- Complaint Regarding Unauthorized Construction. Respected Sir, I need to bring this information to your notice that unauthorised construction at ________near_________ New Delhi (pin code) is being carried out without any MCD permission because of construction we are not able to sleep at night because the work is being carried out at night also sir, please check out the solution of this problem as construction is being carried in an unauthorised way. Yours Faithfully [name of the complainer]

Requirements of Documents as Evidence:

We need to make a complaint with some proof so that we can provide support to the case or complaint. Such requirements are as follows:

  1. He or she has to provide the name, house, photo-id and aadhar number and so on.
  2. These documents should be given to the Municipal Corporation as evidence and to check the authenticity of the case or complaint.
  3. Other necessary information and documents should be given to the Municipal Corporation which talks about illegal construction.

These types of documents are taken because to prevent false complaints since there are many individuals who file unnecessary or false complaints.

SC guidelines on the issue:

  1. “The exercise of the power of demolition which affects the property of the citizens of this country must be exercised in an absolutely fair and transparent manner.” 
  2. “Cities and towns must be well planned and illegal structures must be demolished.” 
  3. “Rule of law also envisages that illegal constructions which are constructed in violation of law must be demolished and there can be no sympathy towards those who violate the law.”
  4. “If a structure is an illegal structure, even though it has been demolished illegally, such a structure should not be permitted to come up again.” 
  5. “If the Municipal Corporation violates the procedure while demolishing the building but the structure is totally illegal, some compensation can be awarded and, in all cases where such compensation is awarded the same should invariably be recovered from the officers who have acted in violation of the law.” 

The above-mentioned points explain the guidelines of the Supreme Court relating to the matters or issues of illegal construction.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Building Rules, 2009:

Prohibition of erection of Building without Building Permit (Rule 3):This rule says that no one has permission to erect or re-erect or alter or make any changes or make addition to any building without obtaining the building permit from the competent authority (Municipal Commissioner) under the mentioned act and it also specify that in certain cases a person is not required with building permit such as erection or re-erection or alteration of an internal partition wall, a parapet wall or cornice or chajja within his or her boundary (Parapet should not be more than 1.50 m in height and cornice or chajja should not exceed 60 cm), repairing of staircase, painting and so on.

Notice for erection or alteration of a building (Rule 4): Rule 4says that if any person wants to erect new building or re-erect or alter or wants to make any addition of a building then he or she should write a notice to the Municipal Commissioner for sanctioning the requirement and this notice should be written as specified in the Schedule I along with the necessary documents attached to it. If any plot has 500 sq. m or less then notice for this plot of land should be accompanied with six sets of key plan, site plan, building plan and general specification. A person should also mention that he has right to erect or re-erect or alter the building and if the land is more than 500 Sq. m then Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act will apply to it and it should be accompanied with no objection certificate from the competent authority and so on.

Building Permit (Rule 15): This rule speaks about the building permit which is framed according to the above-mentioned Rules, 2009 and this building permit is issued by the Municipal Commissioner after his or her signature and it is said in this rule that the person who wrote a application to get building permit does not show proper and authenticated receipt of payment for the building permit to the Corporation as building permit fees then he or she will be served with no building permit. This building permit will be valid for 5 years and it can be renewed but it cannot exceed more than 10 years and so on.

Grounds for refusal (Rule 16): Rule 16 provides some grounds for refusal of sanction of a building and so on. This rule provides grounds for refusal such as – It says that if the building or work or use of site for building contains any particulars in the ground plan or site plan which may violate the above- mentioned Act or Rules or any other rules or law then the authority can refuse to grant sanction of the building. If the notice does not contain the proper particulars or not prepared under the rules mentioned above then it can refuse sanction of the building for the required purpose. It can also refuse if the layout plan is not sanctioned according to the rules of mentioned. There are few other grounds under which building sanction can be refused according the rules.

West Bengal Building (Regulation of Promotion of Construction and Transfer by Promoters), Act, 1993:

 Registration and permission for construction (Section 3)— Section 3 says that any promoter who intends to construct a building in any area under this act must make an application to the competent authority or officer of the state government for registration of his name and to get permission to construct a building and this application should contain the details of the land along with site plan, nature of the title, sanctioned plan for the construction of a building, details of the owner of the land and promoter and so on. When the officer or competent authority finds that he is satisfied with the application and documents given to him for the necessary purpose and then he provides registration and permission for construction of a building.

Period of validity of certificate of registration and cancellation thereof (Section 4)— This section says that the certificate of registration will be valid for 10 years from the date of issue of that certificate and the promoter can renew the registration certificate but it should not exceed 5 years, each and every renewable time should not exceed 5 years at a time and if the promoter violates any of the provisions of the Act then his registration should not be cancelled instead he should be given an opportunity to be heard by the competent authority.

Period of validity of permission for construction of a building (Section 4A)– Here, it says that the permission given under section 3 to construct a building should remain valid for 5 years and if the promoter does not get his work done within this mentioned time then he can renew the permission for construction and it can be renewed for only 2 years after making application to get permission to the officer who deals with it and again if he is unable to complete his work then he can make an application to the state government for extension of permission to get his building completed and the government will offer the same for a period as it thinks fit.

Case Analysis:

“C.M. Hemalatha vs A.Shanmugham Naidu on 31 October, 2019 Bangalore District Court”

This case says that the respondent has built an illegal building on the plaintiff’s land and thereafter the plaintiff has filed this suit against the respondent saying that the respondent has illegally constructed the building. The court directed that the plaintiff is the absolute owner of the property or land and so, the respondent must deliver the possession of the property or land to the plaintiff after demolishing the building constructed by him and he should do so within 1 month from the date of the judgement otherwise the plaintiff will demolish the illegal property at the cost of the respondent.

“4 Whether This Case Involves A vs State Of Gujarat & on 10 April, 2015 Gujarat High Court”

“16/06/2012 Representation made by the residents of Chhotunagar Society to take action against illegal construction and to demolish the illegal construction undertaken by the deceased and their relatives. 25/06/2012 A letter sent by RMC to the President of Chhotunagar Society stating that the alleged servant quarter is a dispute between the members of the society and the watchman and the Municipal Corporation cannot interfere in the same. 04/07/12 A letter sent by one of the deceased namely Vasumatiben Mansing to District Collector, Police Commissioner and Municipal Commissioner regarding harassment by Government employee and office bearers of Chhotunagar Society.

07/07/12 Representation made by the Resident of Chhotunagar Coop. Soc.

Through its president to Municipal Commissioner, RMC for demolishing the illegal construction undertaken by the deceased and her relatives.

26/07/2012 Representation made by the residents of Chhotunagar Society to the Police Commissioner stating that no threat has ever been given to the deceased or her family members and only representation was made to Municipal Corporation for illegal construction and because of the said representation the deceased and her relatives are threatening to implicate the members into false criminal cases.

06/08/12 Order under Section 260(2) of BPMC Act was passed by RMC to demolish illegal construction within seven days or the Municipal Corporation will undertake to demolish at expenses of the deceased and their relatives.

16/08/2012 Civil Suit was preferred by one of the deceased namely Girishbhai Nepali Challenging the order passed under Section 260 (2) of BPMC Act by RMC and requested for stay of the order of demolishing the illegal construction and the same is pending before Principal Civil Judge, Civil Court, Rajkot.

17/08/2012 A letter sent to Police Inspector, Gandhigram Police Station, Rajkot and police Commissioner, Rajkot stating that the deceased and her relatives are making abuses towards the residents of Chhotunagar Society and are threatening to kill them therefore the residents of society were requested for police protection. 22/03/2013 The Civil Court, Rajkot rejected the interim relief as prayed by the deceased.

The above case was filed by the Chhotunagar Society against a family and their relatives regarding their illegal construction of the building. It is also mentioned that the building should be demolished within 7 days otherwise the Municipal Corporation will demolish it.

Conclusion:

We have put great effort to write this article because it provides us important information on illegal construction which is a major problem in India today. Due to increase in population, the number of buildings and houses has been constructed and this has led to illegal construction of buildings and houses in India. The above article provides necessary provisions to deal with illegal construction of buildings and houses. So, one can approach a lawyer to get a good solution for these types of disputes.

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