CHENNAI: The Madras High Court was today informed by amicus curiae that unauthorised constructions were continuing close to the beach along a prime stretch of the East Coast Road on the city outskirts and the corporation and the CMDA were "turning a blind eye to rampant irregularities".
After going through the amicus curiae's report, a bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and G K Ilanthiraiyan directed the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Chennai Corporation to submit a further status report after a joint inspection of the constructions.
It also extended an earlier interim order deferring the city corporation's notices for disconnecting electricity supply to constructions put up by 143 people, including actor-politician Kamal Hassan, allegedly in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) II norms along the ECR.
Advocate T Mohan, appointed by the court as the amicus curiae, noted that the court had earlier directed the corporation and the CMDA to carry out a survey to identify unauthorised constructions in violation of CRZ norms.
If the exercise had been done, the existence of many unauthorised superstructures used for commercial and other purposes would have definitely come to the knowledge and notice of the two entities, he said in his report.
Noticing large-scale unauthorised constructions in the prohibited areas of CRZ, the court had earlier directed the authorities of the corporation and the CMDA to conduct a joint inspection in the areas and to issue notices to the owners of structures found to be illegal.
Subsequently, the corporation served notices for 143 buildings along the beach area. The owners included several leading actors, including Haasan and Ramya Krishnan.
Today, the bench said a duty was cast upon the two agencies to initiate stern and proper action to prevent unauthorised developments with respect to the areas classified as CRZ-III and now CRZ-II.
As regards the batch of over 100 impleading petitions, the bench said in the event of the court finds that the superstructures fall under the CRZ area, they have to be demolished completely.
It posted the matter to July 27 for further hearing.