To justify sealing law, Centre to file affidavit

NEWDELHI: Twelve years after the Centre enacted a law in 2006 protecting unauthorised constructions from sealing in Delhi, it has told the Supreme Court that it wants to file an affidavit justifying the law against Public Interest Litigations (PILs) which demand that is should be struck down.

This move comes two months after the Centre passed a bill in Parliament which protects illegal constructions against the ongoing sealing drive till December 31, 2020.

Additional Solicitor General of India ANS Nadkarni told a bench of Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, which is hearing the sealing case, that “we will be filing an affidavit to justify the 2006 Act”.

Distancing the Centre from the sealing drive, Nadkarni said, “We have nothing to do with sealing. It is a municipal issue and we are only concerned about the law.”

Senior advocate and amicus curie in the sealing case, Ranjit Kumar expressed surprise at the Centre’s new stand. “The issue was of 2006 and it was strange that after 12 years, the Centre wants to file an affidavit,” he said.

The court permitted the Centre to file an affidavit after it said that it will look into the legality of the 2006 Act and fixed April 2 as the date for final hearing in the matter.

Explaining the significance of the apex court’s willingness to examine the 2006 Act, senior advocate Sanjiv Sen said, “Basically the 2006 Act is the principal law that protect illegal construction in Delhi and all subsequent laws passed in 2007 or 2011 or 2017 are just extensions of the 2006 Act.”

“The only thing that 2007, 2011 or 2017 Acts have done is either extend the deadline yearwise that regularises illegal constructions or for the time these constructions are protected. Like the latest 2017 law protects illegal constructions till 2020,” Sen said.

Ranjit Kumar said, “So, if the principal Act or its clauses are struck down by the Supreme Court it will have an effect on the latest and other laws too.”