Temporary respite to Ahmedabad firms in anti-encroachment drive

AHMEDABAD - The Gujarat high Court Tuesday provided temporary respite to the business establishments of the posh CG road area in the city even as it upbraided the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for its “slow” drive against illegal constructions in other parts of the city.

“You are too slow, otherwise the others would have also approached the court,” a division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi told S.N. Shelat, counsel for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

The CG Road shopowners association had sought four weeks time to comply with the fire safety, parking and user norms and the court granted their plea.

The high court had Nov 18 allowed opening of law firms, lawyers’ offices, banks, post offices and government institutions sealed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in the course of a massive drive to curb unauthorised construction in the CG road area.

It, however, refused to interfere in the civic authorities’ drive to seal and demolish illegal and unauthorised constructions following the court’s order in a public interest litigation, claiming that most of the complexes have been violating fire safety, parking and user norms.

The government and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, in a massive drive, have started seizing and closing down the 165 commercial complexes, found violating the norms.

The bench Nov 18 come down heavily on the state government and the civic body for not complying with the court’s earlier order and sought to know as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.