New Delhi: In a judgment emphasising the “heritage status” of the city of Chandigarh, the Supreme Court Tuesday pulled up the Chandigarh Administration for “blindly” sanctioning building plans allowing apartments to come up in the city by converting one residential unit into three apartments.
The bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna, therefore, barred the conversion of independent houses into apartments in Phase-I of Chandigarh — comprising the first 30 sectors.
It asserted that “apartmentalisation” of single dwelling units in Phase-I “will injure the ‘lungs’ of the city as conceptualised by Le Corbusier” — the French architect of the city.
The court was hearing appeals challenging a judgment passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in November 2021, ruling that residential plots in Chandigarh can have multiple shareholders, even outside the family. The appeal was filed by the Residents Welfare Association of Sector 10 in Chandigarh, which had approached the HC in 2016 seeking directions to restrain the administration from permitting construction of apartments on residential plots in Chandigarh or allow them to be utilised for apartments.
The bench noted that though the Chandigarh Estate Rules 2007 prohibit such apartmentalisation and the Chandigarh Administration had also taken a stand against it, the latter was “turning Nelson’s eye” to single dwelling units being converted into apartments.
It pulled up the city’s administration, asserting that “omissions” on its part have led to a “chaotic situation”, and that it is sanctioning plans which, in effect, allow apartmentalisation.
The court also referred to Directive Principles of State policy which make it the duty of the state to protect monuments and places of national importance, as well as the fundamental duties which make it a citizen’s duty to value and preserve “the rich heritage of our composite culture”. It then asserted that Phase-I of Chandigarh — i.e., the Corbusian Chandigarh — possesses heritage status.
The court observed that converting residential units into apartments in Phase-I of Chandigarh is “destructive of the vision of Le Corbusier” and “opposed to the concept of protecting and preserving the heritage status of Corbusian Chandigarh”.
“As such, it is necessary that the respondent authorities must take every possible step for preserving the heritage status of Corbusian Chandigarh,” it said.
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Steps for maintaining ‘heritage status’
In its 131-page judgment, the court noted that Chandigarh Estate Rules 2007 prohibit fragmentation or amalgamation of any site or building, and the Chandigarh Master Plan (CMP), 2031 also says that re-densification of any government residential/institutional pocket in Phase-I sectors should only be done with the prior approval of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee.
The apex court then noted that while apartmentalisation of buildings is not permitted under the 2007 Rules, it was being done indirectly by real estate developers, by transferring shares of the house to the purchasers instead, and then the buyers entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on usage of different portions of the property. The HC had ruled in 2021 that such an arrangement would not amount to apartmentalisation.
“Undisputedly, permitting three apartments to be constructed in one dwelling unit would result in increasing the density of population in the Le Corbusier zone. This, in our view, cannot be done without the same being approved by the Heritage Committee and the central government,” it said.
The court has now directed the Heritage Committee to consider the issue of re-densification in Phase-I of the city, and also take into consideration the impact of such re-densification on parking and traffic issues. After considering these issues, the Heritage Committee is then required to amend the CMP-2031 and the 2017 Rules, as far as they are applicable to Phase-I.
These amendments would then be placed before the central government, which would take a decision on the approval of the amendments, “keeping in view the requirement of maintaining the heritage status of Le Corbusier zone,” the court ordered.
Till a final decision is taken by the central government, it said the Chandigarh administration shall not sanction any plan of a building which intends to convert a single-dwelling unit into three different apartments occupied by three strangers.
It also ordered freezing of the floor area ratio (FAR) and restricted the number of floors in Phase-I to three with a uniform maximum height as fixed by the heritage committee, keeping in view the requirement to maintain the heritage status.
The court exercised its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution — which allows the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary to do “complete justice” in any case — to issue the directions.
Impact of haphazard urbanisation
The court also observed that it was “high time” the legislature, the executive and the policy makers at the Centre as well as State levels “take note of the damage to the environment on account of haphazard developments and take a call to take necessary measures to ensure that the development does not damage the environment”.
It called for a proper balance to be struck between sustainable development and environmental protection. It, therefore, appealed to the government to bring in provisions for carrying out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies before permitting urban development.
The court also looked into the adverse impact on the environment due to haphazard urbanisation. It referred to an India Today article titled “Bengaluru – How to Ruin India’s Best City”. “The warning flagged by the city of Bengaluru needs to be given due attention by the legislature, executive and the policy makers. It is high time that before permitting urban development, EIA of such development needs to be done,” it said.
‘Symbolic of India’s freedom’
The court’s judgment had begun with a quote by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, when he laid down the founding principles of the city: “Let this be a new town, symbolic of freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past…an expressions of the nation’s faith in the future.”
It then recalled the history of the city, pointing out that it was designed by Le Corbusier in association with other architects — Pierre Jeanneret, Jane B. Drew and Maxwell Fry.
It also explained that Le Corbusier incorporated principles of light, space and greenery in the plan, and used the human body as a metaphor. It observed, “…the ‘head’ contained the Capital Complex, the ‘heart’ being the Commercial Centre, i.e., Sector 17, lungs (the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces and sector greens), the intellect (the cultural and educational institutions), the viscera (the industrial area), and the ‘arms’ having academic and leisure facilities like open courtyards etc. The circulation system was conceived as having seven types of roads known as 7Vs.”
It explained that one of the salient features of Le Corbusier’s design was that the population density in the northern sectors was to be low, and was to increase towards the southern sectors. It also asserted that Chandigarh was planned as a low-rise city.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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