When municipal norms are violated by builders, it causes untold miseries not only to the occupants of the building, but also to those living in the surrounds.

Taking a serious view of blatant violations by builders, the Apex Court, however, showed its sympathy for the buyers who bought the property, despite being aware of the violation in Dipak Kumar Mukherjee v. Kolkata Municipal Corporation and others.

The long and short of the case was the petitioner had obtained clearance from Kolkata Municipal Corporation for building two floors whereas he went ahead with construction of five floors thumbing his nose at even the stop work notice issued by the Corporation.

The court ordered demolition of the unauthorised floors but removed the sting arising out of this insofar, as the buyers were concerned with a simultaneous order of reimbursement of cost along with 18 per cent interest per annum within three months.

An exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh was also imposed on the builder who had the gumption to point out that there were many five-storeyed structures in the vicinity built with equal sense of impunity blatantly. The Apex Court paid no heed to this submission.

(The author is a New Delhi-based chartered accountant)

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