Illegal construction thrives in the national capital with the support of law enforcers as it is not possible without a nexus between the builders and the officials, the Delhi High Court has been told. A three-member experts panel, set up by the high court to inspect alleged illegal constructions across the city, has said in its report that "30 per cent of the population of Delhi is living in sub-human condition and 10 per cent completely in inhuman conditions" due to such construction.
Holding that "builder, architect and the owner have a vested interest", it told a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal that the sub-human conditions in which the people lived were a result of the "greed of property owners and callousness of the MCD's law enforcers".
The committee members, former CBI director D R Karthikeyan, ex-India Habitat Centre Director R M S Liberhan and retired district judge Ravinder Kaur, also said that without enforcing any criminal liability on the builder- architect-owner-official nexus, "no lasting remedy will work".
"Illegal constructions cannot happen without connivance. Builder-official nexus ... thrives in our cities by buying protection and insurance from the law enforcers. The builder, architect and the owner have a vested interest. Often, the purchaser is the most vulnerable.
"Hence, criminal and civil liability of the builder, architect, the owner and the concerned executive engineer must survive for ten years from the date of the sanctioned plan and, in the case of non-sanctioned ones, from the date of the acquisition of the title to the illegal premises," the committee said in an over 200 page report.
