Unauthorised construction of Bungalow: Court grants last opportunity to Nirmal Singh’s wife, JDA to file objections
JAMMU, JANUARY 28: In a significant development, Member(Judicial) Rajesh Sekhri of the J&K Special Tribunal, Jammu on Thursday granted last and final opportunity to the Jammu Development Authority(JDA) and the appellant Mamta Singh, wife of former Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Nirmal Singh, to file objections to the application of the whistleblower Advocate Muzzaffar Ali Shah seeking his impleadment as Party Respondent in the appeal filed against JDA’s order to demolish their unauthorisedly built palatial bunglow at village Ban near Nagrota.
When the matter came up for hearing on Virtual Mode before the Bench headed by Rajesh Sekhri, Member(J), Advocate Rahul Sadotra appearing for the appellant Mamta Singh sought yet another opportunity to file objections to the application for impleadment moved by Advocate Muzzaffar Ali Shah. At this stage, the court enquired from the Counsel appearing for the JDA, Advocate Adarsh Sharma, as to whether JDA is filing its objections to the application today, the Counsel for JDA also sought further time to file the objections.
Advocate Muzzaffar Ali Shah submitted that both the appellant and JDA have already been given more than a month’s time on the last date of hearing and they have not filed the objections and both the parties want to prolong the matter, so that the matter gets delayed. He further submitted that matter can be listed for final hearing after impleading him as party respondent as it will not cause any prejudice to any of the parties since he is only going to render assistance to the court for arriving at a just conclusion.
After considering the submissions of the rival parties and keeping in view the urgency and the public interest involved in the matter, the J&K Special Tribunal granted last and final opportunity to the Jammu Development Authority(JDA) and the appellant Mamta Singh to file objections to the application for impleadment and further directed the registry to list the matter on February 7. The court has further extended the stay on Demolition till next date of hearing.
It is worthwhile to mention herein that the JDA on November 8th, 2021 issued final Demolition Notice under section 7(3) of the Building Control Operations Act, 1988 directing Dr. Nirmal Singh and his wife Mamta Singh to demolish the alleged illegal/unauthorised construction raised at village Ban(Panjgrain), Nagrota on their own within a period of five days failing which the Enforcement Wing of the JDA would carry on demolition of the alleged illegal construction.
However, Mamta Singh filed an appeal against the Demolition Order and obtained interim relief from J&K Special Tribunal, Jammu whereby the demolition had been stayed.
The JDA has already filed detailed reply to the appeal as well as application for stay wherein JDA has branded the construction as “Major Violation” as Dr. Nirmal Singh and his wife Mamta Singh did not obtain the building permission from JDA despite the area coming under the purview of JDA being its ‘Local Area’. It may be recalled here that JDA issued Demolition Order only after the matter came in public domain through an RTI Information obtained by Advocate Muzzaffar Ali Shah.
