Everybody has taken law in their hands: SC

New Delhi, Sept. 24: “Everybody has taken the law in their own hands,” the Supreme Court said Monday while hearing a matter related to sealing of unauthorised constructions in Delhi.

The bench made the observation while hearing a plea filed by the owner of a motel, situated near Chhattarpur area of South Delhi, which has been sealed by the authorities.

“Everybody has taken the law in their own hands,” a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said, adding “why somebody has to say that please obey the law?”

Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the applicant, said that on September 14, the basement of the building was sealed by the authorities and then on September 20, the entire premises of six acres was sealed.

He said due to the wedding season, they had made pandals which was removed by them but still the premises was sealed despite the fact that they had already replied to the show cause notice issue to them by the authorities.

“Your client must be literate. Why literate people have to be told that you have to follow the law? Why do you want to endanger the people,” the bench told Rohatgi.

To this, Mr Rohatgi said pandals were used traditionally during wedding ceremonies.

“But what about fire hazard,” the bench asked and observed that as per reports, there were around 51,000 houses in Delhi which were being used for commerical purposes.

Responding to the query, the senior counsel said they had the fire clearance to use pandals.