SHC orders demolition of unauthorised construction in housing society

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday ordered demolition of an unauthorised construction in the Karachi Administration Employees Cooperative Housing Society after ejecting the occupants of the building with the police aid, if necessary.

The high court also ordered the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to initiate action against licensed architect and engineer of the building for issuing a false certificate with the completion plan.

The order came on a petition of Tanveer Ahmed and others against an illegal construction in the society. The petitioners counsel, Usman Farooq, submitted that a private builder had constructed a multi-storey building on a residential plot without an approved plan and he was also constructing a fourth floor that had blocked air and sunlight to the neighbouring buildings.

The SBCA submitted that the private builder had constructed second, third and fourth floors without an approved building plan and such additional floors could not be regularised under the Karachi Building & Town Planning Regulations, 2002.

A counsel for the private builder submitted that their case was now confined to the ground-plus-three floors. He submitted that even though the construction of two additional floors was without an approved building plan but in processing the completion plan of the building, the SBCA was required to consider regularisation of the unauthorised construction under the regulations.

A counsel of the occupants of the building, Syed Salim Ahmed, submitted that they had purchased premises in the building from the builder and were entitled to be heard as well.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi after hearing the arguments of the counsel observed that the occupants of the building living there without an occupancy certificate in violation of the law could not claim to be bona fide purchasers.

The SHC observed that the occupants had no equity on their side and they had rather simply stepped into the shoes of the builder and would sink or sail with him.

The bench observed that the private builder had violated the approved building plan upon which the SBCA had demolished the unauthorised construction but the builder proceeded to reconstruct the third floor again.

The SHC observed that after perusal of the record, it was established that a certification that the building was constructed in accordance with the approved building plan was apparently false and thus attracted grounds for cancellation/suspension of licences of the said architect and engineer under the regulations 4-10 of the Karachi Building & Town Planning Regulations, 2002.

The SHC directed the SBCA to demolish the unauthorised construction by ejecting the occupants of the building. The bench also observed that the cost of demolition shall be borne by the builder.