By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday allowed addition of a third floor and several dwelling units in buildings on the legally developed residential plots.
Besides allowing four dwelling units in buildings on plots from 50 to 250 sq metres, a bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat also increased the number of dwelling units up to a maximum of 10 in buildings made on plots of 1,000 sq metres and above.
The bench, which also included Justices C.K. Thakkar and L.S Panta, allowed a maximum of five dwelling units in buildings on plots between 250 sq metres and 500 sq metres, and seven dwelling units in plots of 500 sq metres and above.
While permitting an additional third floor and several dwelling units in the existing buildings on legally developed residential plots, the bench stipulated that this order would be subject to the final outcome of the legality of Delhi’s new Master Plan-2021.
Though the bench increased the number of dwelling units to more than what was envisaged in the Delhi’s old Master Plan 2001, the permitted increase still fell short of what has been envisaged in the new Master Plan 2021.
While granting the property owners permission to raise their building’s height to 15 metres against the present maximum permissible limit of 12.5 metres the bench said the apex court’s final order on the legality of Mater Plan 2021 would be applicable to the purchasers of the newly built dwelling units as well.
The bench dismissed advocate Ranjit Kumar’s argument that increasing the dwelling units in the capital will play havoc with city’s infrastructure.
Amicus curie Kumar, who was appointed by the court to assist it in the examination of the legality of the new Master Plan, said Delhi would miserably fail in providing basic civic amenities like power, water, etc to its residents as the swelling units would grow exponentially owing to this order.
But another senior counsel, Mukul Rohtagi, said that restricting the number of dwelling units would not solve Delhi’s problems. If Delhi’s problems have to be solved, the number of immigrants has to be checked, which is not legally possible, said Rohtagi.