Two days before the end of Supreme Court’s deadline to demolish five apartment buildings in Maradu grama panchayat in Ernakulam district, a builder on Thursday moved the apex court to review its order, saying that the court was misled by the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) into passing the order.
On May 8, a Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra had directed the demolition of five apartment buildings in Maradu within a month. The court, based on a report submitted by its expert committee, had concluded that the buildings fell within the CRZ-III limits.
The committee submitted its report stating that as per the CRZ notification of 1991 and Kerala Coastal Zone Management Plan 1996, the area in question came under CRZ III. As per the CRZ notification of 1991, no construction is permitted within 200 metres from the coastal line in CRZ III.
‘Vital fact hidden’
But Holy Faith Builders, represented by advocates A. Karthik and Santhosh Mathew, submitted that the KCZMA hid a vital fact from the apex court — that is, a more recent Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) prepared pursuant to a 2011 CRZ notification was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on February 28, 2019 by which the Maradu area was categorised under CRZ-II.
‘Owners ignored’
The builder said the apex court’s May 8 judgment to demolish 400 flats would render 400 families in the Maradu area homeless. The expert committee did not hear the apartment owners.
“All the 91 units in the petitioner’s (Holy Faith Builders) building have been sold. The committee did not issue notice to the owners of the apartments who are residing there. They are the affected parties, if an adverse order is passed in the matter,” the petition said.
It said the Maradu panchayat, formed in 1953, was part of the Greater Cochin Development Authority and ‘‘hence is part of a legally- designated urban area.” It was factually incorrect to say that Maradu was situated in the shores of backwaters in Ernakulam district.
‘Site not inspected’
The petition contended that the committee did not inspect the site.
“The committee ignored the fact that the Maradu grama panchayat was a fully developed urban area and it was wrongly categorised in CRZ-III in the CZMP approved in 1996 and that this error was rectified by including the Maradu area as CRZ-II in the CZMP prepared based on 2011 notification approved on 28.2.2019,” the petition said.
