The State government has asked Ernakulam District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla not to accept Rs. 1 crore from the real estate firm DLF as ordered by a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court as compensation for having illegally constructed a portion of the company’s apartment complex by the bank of the Chilavanoor backwaters in Kochi.
The government issued the directive as it has decided to file either a review petition or an appeal, following the legal advice given by the Advocate General’s office.
The Bench had passed the judgment while disposing of an appeal filed by DLF against a single judge’s directive to demolish the apartment complex constructed without obtaining required sanctions.
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Though the Division Bench upheld the single judge’s finding that the construction was illegal, it ordered regularisation of the construction on payment of damages.
The court pointed out that prior environmental clearance was mandatory before starting any construction work or preparation of the land for an apartment project which consisted of 185 units and had a plinth area of 4,90,000 sq.m.
The Bench had observed that demolishing the structure at this stage would be “more detrimental as it would further cause damage to the environment”. Therefore, the court decided to make “the builder pay for the mischief/damage already caused to the environment”.
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The Bench observed that demolition could have been ordered without second thought if the structure was in CRZ I area where constructions were prohibited. But in CRZ II area, constructions were permissible and could be regularised. This was more so since only a portion of the entire property came under CRZ II area. The CRZ notification was not applicable to the other portion.
The court had ordered that the compensation amount be used exclusively for maintaining ecological balance in the area on the eastern side of the Chilavannur backwaters.