Calcutta High Court on Wednesday slapped a Rs 1-crore fine on a Howrah builder whose five-storey building it had earlier ordered be evacuated and demolished.
The building in Kali Prasad Chakraborty Lane in Howrah’s Kadamtala is already occupied by at least five flat owners.
The flat owners sought a year’s time to vacate the premises.
“Ask yourselves what will happen if the entire structure comes crashing down. What will then happen to you? You should have vacated the premises earlier,” Justice Amrita Sinha said on Wednesday.
She gave the residents three months to vacate the building and ordered razing of the structure immediately after that.
Citing the Garden Reach building collapse, which has killed at least 10 persons, Justice Sinha said: “A soft stand of the court led to such incidents. But the situation has now become so serious that the court will not spare any illegal construction.”
The Howrah demolition order was earlier challenged by the builder. His prayer was rejected by the court, said a lawyer for the Howrah Municipal Corporation.
“The construction at 5/8/2 Kali Prasad Chakraborty Lane, Howrah, is an absolute illegal and unauthorised construction which has been made without a valid sanctioned plan,” Justice Sinha had written in an order on March 13.
“The order of demolition has been tested before the Single Bench and also before the Hon’ble Division Bench. The prayer for regularisation of the unauthorised construction has also been turned down by the court.”
This newspaper visited the building, around 2km from Howrah Maidan, on Wednesday afternoon. The area is dotted with multi-storeyed apartment blocks and smaller standalone homes that look decades older. There were several under-construction buildings.
A black iron gate leading to the building was shut. Metro could not spot a calling bell. Multiple knocks on the gate failed to elicit a response.
The promoter, Soumitra Mukherjee, told this newspaper that he had permission for the first three floors. His defence was: “I am not the only one.”
“I have made a mistake. But I am not the only one. There are several such unauthorised constructions in the vicinity,” Mukherjee said.
Justice Sinha had directed the flat-owners to file an affidavit, mentioning the date within which they would vacate the premises. That petition came up for hearing on Wednesday.
Five owners had purchased the flats at prices ranging between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 40 lakh, said a court official citing the case papers.
The residents said in their appeal they had spent their lives’ savings and borrowed money from banks to buy the flats. But the judge rejected their appeal.
The judge then told the builder’s counsel that the residents had been taken for a ride.
“You are saying you will rehabilitate the flat owners. The court fully understands that you will take them to another unauthorised building. You will not be spared,” she said before ordering him to pay the fine.
The case will be heard next on April 2, Justice Sinha said, warning the builder that non-payment of the fine will land him in a bigger problem.
An officer of the civic body in Howrah said demolition orders were difficult to implement because of multiple factors. “Political patronage enjoyed by the builders, lack of police cooperation and shortage of manpower are among them,” he said.