NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered resumption of sealing drive against illegal and unauthorised structures in the national capital while specifying that violators would now be given 48 hours, instead of the earlier seven days, to showcause why their properties not be sealed.

Sending a stern warning to politicians not to attempt stalling the sealing drive, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta summoned Najafgarh zone committee chairman Mukesh Suryan for allegedly interfering and preventing the sealing drive by civic authorities under the supervision of the SC-appointed monitoring committee.

Asking Suryan to respond in 10 days and be present in the court, the bench asked South Delhi Municipal Corporation to submit original files relating to sudden transfer of deputy commissioner Vishwendra Singh allegedly on the complaint of Suryan after a sealing drive in the area. SDMC, through senior advocate Sanjiv Sen, termed the transfer routine.

In an important development, the bench accepted attorney general K K Venugopal’s suggestion, which has been incorporated in the office memorandum issued on May 23 by the ministry of housing and urban affairs, that the builder, contractor and architect of illegal structures be not only penalised but also blacklisted for future work. “This will be a deterrent,” additional solicitor general A S Nadkarni said. The bench asked the Centre to notify the provision for blacklisting of deviant contractors, builders and architects in two weeks.

Accepting the suggestion of amicus curiae Ranjit Kumar, the bench said whenever officials detected construction of an unauthorised or illegal structure, they should take steps to immediately stop the construction.

The bench directed Delhi Police to provide adequate protection to officials engaged in the sealing drive. “There is no point in saying the situation is volatile and hence the sealing drive cannot be carried out. It is the duty of the police to maintain law and order so that officials can carry out their task,” it said.

The court ordered DDA and civic authorities to explore the possibility of digital mapping of Delhi to enable them to detect unauthorised constructions and illegal structures, which had come up in decades during the “induced sleep of officials who were tasked to keep a check on such constructions”.

DDA vice-chairman and SDMC deputy commissioner were present in the court following complaints that the sealing drive had not been taking place as per the court’s orders. The DDA vice-chairman told the court that a pilot project with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) was under way for geo-fencing of around 7,000 acres of DDA land to prevent encroachment.

The bench said, “The ministry of housing and urban affairs shall explore digital mapping of Delhi through National Informatics Centre (NIC), Isro or any other department of the Union government.” Justice Lokur said NIC had probably done it and wanted the counsel to check with NIC about digital mapping of Delhi.

Amicus curiae Ranjit Kumar and A D N Rao told the court that Delhi’s lanes and bylanes were dotted with monuments and historical buildings. But mindless notifying of roads for mixed use had led to “greedy people” encroaching on protected monuments. On his suggestion, the SC ordered that the special task force set up by the Union ministry would include a senior official of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) while undertaking identification of unauthorised structures.

DDA informed the court that it had launched an app on July 9 to enable Delhi residents to complain about unauthorised or illegal construction. Venugopal told the court that Delhi had been divided into 32 grids, each assigned to a nodal officer who would be held accountable for any illegal or unauthorised structure coming up in the area under his/her jurisdiction. The authority said media reports that over 1,000 complaints were received on the first day of the app were highly exaggerated. The DDA vice-chairman said in the first week, 431 complaints were received of which 138 cases were addressed, including demolition, sealing and removal.

