CHENNAI: A vacation bench of the Madras High Court has castigated the management of Billroth Hospitals in Shenoy Nagar for its attempts to thwart demolition of the unauthorised construction of five floors beyond the third floor and directed the authorities concerned, to begin the demolition on June 16. The bench of Justices RMT Teeka Raman and P D Audikesavalu extended the time given in the earlier order dated May 9, so as to enable the hospital to shift the patients convalescing in the additional floors to some other hospitals and to remove the medical equipment and other paraphernalia.
The judges said that in their order dated May 9 last, the vacation bench had arrived at the factual finding that there was no construction beyond third floor prior to July 23, 2009, when property tax was assessed and as such, the benefit of regularisation under the GOs dated June 22, 2017, of the Housing and Urban development (UD4(3)) would not enure to the hospitals. The materials placed before this court do not inspire confidence to believe that the construction of the fourth to eighth floors had been completed as on July 1, 2007, for purpose of the hospitals to be eligible to apply for regularisation, the judges held.
It is also apparent on the face of the records that after the rejection of the appeal by the Appellate Authority confirming the refusal to grant planning permission for the proposal to construct the additional floors in proceedings dated November 15, 2006, the hospitals had not taken any effort thereafter to bring the deviated and unauthorized constructions in conformity with the applicable building regulations and the authority concerned had also not taken any measure to prevent it from using and occupying the unauthorised construction and to demolish the same.
It is also evident that the hospitals had not made any application for regularisation as per GO Nos 110 and 111 dated June 22, 2018, of the Housing and Urban Development within six months from the date of notification as required therein. It was only after the petitioner (relative of an inpatient) had required the CMDA to inform whether the construction of the building had been approved, a notice dated January 25 this year was issued. Only thereafter, the hospital applied online for regularization of the building, the judges said.
In response to a specific query as to how the application for regularisation could have been made after the lapse of six months from the date of issue of the notification in 110 and 111 GOs, hospital senior counsel and Additional Advocate General submitted that time had been extended till June 21, 2019, for the same. But there was no such extension provided in the materials placed before them.
“In that view of the matter, we are convinced that there is no justification to defer the demolition of the fourth to eighth floors of the building of the hospital under that pretext. Resultantly, we hold that the order dated May 9, 2019, passed by this court, does not require any variation and has to be implemented in its entirety,” the judges said and dismissed the interim petitions seeking an extension of the time limit for demolition and till then not to cut the power supply.
No admission of new patients
The bench also made it clear that the hospitals shall not admit any new patient in the said unauthorised floors. The process of demolition shall commence from June 16 under supervision of advocate T Mohan, the amicus curiae appointed by the court and he shall file a report