Why discriminate between rich, poor on illegal construction: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Why discriminate between rich and poor when it comes to unauthorised construction in the city, the Delhi High Court today asked the Centre, AAP government and civic bodies here.

While rich and influential people living in an illegally constructed house are not touched by the authorities, the poor are thrown out of such structures by using bulldozers, the high court said.

A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar also said that rich people, staying at the posh Sainik Farms area here, are not even penalised for bringing up such unauthorised structures which were stopped by a court order passed way back in 2001.

"There is rampant illegal construction in the Sainik Farm area since the order was passed and even we have found this in the recent past. Rich and influential people live here (Sainik farm), so the authorities are scared of touching them.

"However, where poor people are concerned you just bring in the bulldozer and throw them out. You even burden them with fines," the court said and asked the Centre, Delhi government and civic agencies of the city why such discrimination exists.

"Why should we treat this rich class differently? Charge them with fines for violating the court orders and make them stand on equal footing with the poor ones," it ordered.

It also expressed displeasure over the pending proposal of the government to regularise the unauthorised constructions in the Sainik Farms, saying the bureaucrats are good at sitting over files.

"Nobody is interested in doing anything. Your proposals are stuck for long," the bench said, adding that "bureaucrats are good at sitting over the files. They may be doing so because their brother, sister or relatives may be staying over there."

The court's oral observation were made during the hearing of pleas filed by an NGO and some individuals alleging illegal construction in Sainik Farms.