HC orders KMC to demolish illegal structures at 8 addresses by Feb 28
Times of India | 4 January 2025
12 Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to demolish several illegal constructions spread across eight addresses housing a few hundred residents.
KMC, with assistance from the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police, was asked to evict the occupants of the illegal structures and simultaneously demolish them. However, the division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya first asked KMC to share their list of illegal constructions with CESC so that power connections could be snapped. They also directed KMC to discontinue water supply to these buildings.
The Chief Justice directed KMC, CESC and Kolkata Police to file an action taken report to the division bench before the matter was listed for hearing again on Feb 28, 2025. According to the advocate representing the petitioner, out of 10 illegal buildings submitted in the PIL, eight were directed to be demolished. This list included illegal construction on enemy property, thika property and waqf property. This development comes after the Supreme Court on Sept 17 clarified that no interim stay or direction was granted either to maintain the status quo or stop demolition. "Directions issued by the high court from time to time will be binding on the parties and any clarification required shall be obtained from the high court," it was noted.
When the Chief Justice commented that around 60 people would be occupying these illegal constructions, senior standing counsel Amitesh Banerjee stated that the occupants are in the hundreds. Another advocate commented on these as ‘tiffin-like flats'.
During the proceedings, the advocate for the petitioner mentioned that one of the properties, which was a vacant ground when the matter was taken up, saw a three-storied building — 147/H/25, Keshab Chandra Sen Street — come up within a matter of months. Sandwiched between multi-storied buildings, the new construction had come up recently, but no owner could be found near the site. The division bench directed KMC to demolish this building as well.
The division bench order came after the Supreme Court on September 17 upheld the Calcutta High Court order on May 3, 2024, in which the division had directed the Kolkata police commissioner to set up a force to assist the KMC in the demolition work.