No advance notice to defaulters: SC on sealing drive

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that no advance notice would be given to defaulters before sealing residential premises in the national capital.

The apex court also fixed a time limit of 48 hours to seal such premises.

Earlier on Thursday, a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur pulled up the Centre for failing to provide a report of the survey conducted of houses in South Delhi's Amar Colony to ascertain illegal constructions.

"You (government) take months to finalise the date, months to analyse it, months to issue show cause notice, months to adjudicate. By then Delhi will collapse and then you will say the petition is infructuous," the court had said while hearing the plea related to sealing of unauthorised and illegal construction in the national capital.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari is facing contempt proceedings for allegedly breaking the lock of a house situated in an unauthorised colony in North East Delhi's Gokulpur area his constituency that was sealed by the Supreme Court mandated monitoring committee.

However, the BJP lawmaker had stated that he broke the lock of the premise as it was wrongly sealed by the committee.

The court had earlier ordered the Centre and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to conduct a survey to find out illegal construction.