The high court will not entertain any petition seeking a stay on the demolition of an allegedly illegal construction, a single-judge bench said on Tuesday.
“This court has decided not to entertain any petition seeking a stay on a demolition order. If any of the (subordinate) courts issues an order for demolition of an allegedly unauthorised construction, the order will prevail,” Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court said.
A five-storey under-construction building in a congested lane in Garden Reach collapsed close to Sunday midnight, crushing at least 10 people to death. At least 17 people are injured. The rescue operation had not ended till Tuesday night.
The judge refused to hear at least three petitions — seeking a stay on the demolition of allegedly illegal structures — during the day.
The value of human lives is paramount, she said.
“The issue of saving lives of common people should be given priority. The courts should intervene in these issues,” she said.
A demolition order is usually served by the local civic body. And the order is usually challenged in a tribunal or a court.
The high court often takes a sympathetic view of the people living in such a building and issues an interim stay on the demolition, said lawyers.
Firhad Hakim, the mayor of Kolkata, had said on Monday that in the past year, the KMC had issued notices to over 2,800 illegal buildings asking the promoters to stop the construction.
A KMC official said they had demolished over 700 illegal buildings in the past year.
But the Garden Reach incident showed it was far from enough.
PIL allowed
The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya of the high court allowed on Tuesday the filing of a public interest litigation (PIL) on the Garden Reach building collapse.
A local BJP leader, Rakesh Singh, had prayed for the admission of the PIL.