SC issues landmark ruling to curb illegal constructions, know the impact in Odisha

New Delhi: In a significant judgment giving the executive unfettered right to demolish unauthorised and illegal constructions and encroachments, the Supreme Court has ruled that properties falling foul of law cannot be legitimised on the ground that people have been staying in them for decades and that authorities had blinked at the illegalities.

Upholding demolition action taken by the UP Government against certain illegal properties, a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said, “Illegality of unauthorised construction cannot be perpetuated. If the construction is made in contravention of the Acts/Rules, it would be construed as illegal and unauthorised construction, which has to be necessarily demolished.”

Authoring the 36-page judgment, Justice Mahadevan said no unauthorised or illegal structure can be legitimised under the ruse of passage of time, long inaction of authorities, or that a substantial amount of money has been spent on the construction.

Justice Mahadevan said, “Unauthorised constructions, apart from posing a threat to the life of the occupants and the citizens living nearby, also have an effect on resources like electricity, ground water and access to roads, which are primarily designed to be made available in orderly development.”

Impact in Odisha

The SC ruling aims at ensuring strict adherence to urban development laws. Experts believe the ruling will particularly impact Odisha, which is currently grappling with a series of administrative issues, including errors in sale deed registration, part plot sales, and apartment registrations.

The apartment registration in Odisha came to a standstill in 2022 when the Orissa High Court instructed the state government to proceed with registration only if all the rules were followed. The SC’s order will now serve as an eye-opener for the state, said a real estate expert.

The occupancy certificate (OC) is a long-standing issue the state government is facing. There are merely five or ten per cent of buildings in Bhubaneswar alone which possess an OC. With the SC ruling now, the state government must come up with some regularisation plan for the existing buildings having no OCs, he added.

The apex court says that all the necessary service connections, such as electricity, water supply, and sewerage connection, shall be given by the service provider or the board to the buildings only after the production of the completion or occupation certificate.