CHENNAI: A New post of Additional Secretary (Technical) in the Housing and Urban Development Department, exclusively to hear the appeals filed by builders under the TN Town and Country Planning Act, has been sanctioned, the first Bench of Madras High Court was informed on Monday.
Additional Advocate General S T S Moorthy shared the information with the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice M Sundar during further hearing on a PIL on demolition of unauthorised structures in George Town area, particularly in Sowcarpet. The PIL was filed by activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy.
The AAG produced a copy of the Government Order (GO), issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department on March 3, for the bench. The GO stated that the post was created to exclusively hear the appeals under sections 79, 80-A and 113(A) and any other appeal provisions arising in future under the Act.
A Chief Planner from the CMDA would be appointed to the post to offer technical advice to the Secretary, Housing Development Department on urban planning and development issues, multistoried building proposals from CMDA, land reclassification proposal received from the Director of Town and Country Planning and other proposals of carrying out variations in the master plans of various planning authorities.
The GO was passed after a directive from the then first bench headed by Chief Justice S K Kaul. The matter will be taken up on June 19.