The court orders developer R. Kant & Co. to deposit Rs 5 crore towards Aravalli Rehabilitation Fund within a month for damaged areas.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered the demolition of all concrete structures built in Faridabad’s Kant Enclave after 18 August, 1992.
The bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta noted in their Tuesday order that construction activity carried out on the parcel of land was in violation of various orders and caused “irreversible” damage to the Aravalli hills.
“The unfortunate and distressing consequence of this is that because of a complete lack of any concern for the environmental and ecological degradation carried out in the Aravalli hills by influential colonizers like the applicant and what appears to be a very strong mining lobby in Haryana, the damage caused to the Aravalli hills is irreversible,” the bench said.
It added that not only will future generations have to pay a heavy price for the environmental degradation, but the present generation too.
Kant Enclave is located in Faridabad on a forest land and no construction activity is permitted on it under Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900.
Among others, former chief justice of India A.M. Ahmadi owns a house in the area.
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Rap for Haryana
The apex court also came down heavily on the state of Haryana which “comes out in very poor light.”
The bench said the state must “be held accountable for its conflicting and self-destructive stand taken in spite of affidavits filed by the Chief Secretary of the State of Haryana from time to time supporting the Forest Department.”
The court called the construction work carried out by real estate developer R. Kant and Co. frightening, adding that it could not have happened without the knowledge of the State of Haryana and its officers.
“The rule of law seems to have broken down in Haryana and become the rule of men only to favour the applicants,” the bench added.
Rehabilitation and refund
The court ordered R. Kant & Co. to deposit Rs 5 crore for damaged areas towards Aravalli Rehabilitation Fund within a month or no later than 31 October.
The company was also directed to refund those who had invested in the land with an interest of 18 per cent per annum since the date of investment post 18 August, 1992. Further, R. Kant & Co. and Haryana Town & Country Planning Department were ordered to equally pay Rs 50 lakh to each person whose construction will be demolished.
Of the 1,600 plots carved out in Kant Enclave, conveyance deeds had been executed only in respect of 284 residential plots and three commercial plots. On the residential plots, only 33 houses had been constructed and it appears that not one of them is a single-storey hutment, noted the court.