Nearly 168 days after banning registration of plots and buildings in unauthorised layouts, the Madras High Court on Monday refused to re-examine its order. It made it clear that without a concrete proposal from the government for categorising and regularising such layouts, the court cannot pass any interim order in the issue.
When the plea came up for hearing before the First Bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan, made the observation when the respondents, mainly realtors, contended that middle-class people who are paying EMIs for such properties are largely affected by the ban. They prayed the court to fix a deadline for the government to give its proposal and to take a policy decision.The issue pertains to a public interest litigation petition moved by advocate ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran seeking a direction to the government to forebear giving approval or permission to convert agricultural lands into housing layouts, and consequently forebear the registration authorities from registering such properties.On September 9, 2016 the court passed an interim order banning registration of such properties in the State. Later on January 31, the ban was extended to the union territory of Puducherry.the counsel appearing for real estate developers pleaded the court to at least vacate the ban pertaining to the lands and buildings registered before the interim order was passed.
However, refusing to grant any relief, the Bench directed the government to file a comprehensive scheme within four weeks and posted the PIL to March 20 for further hearing.
