The court noted that the builders/developers, along with civic officials and police responsible for such illegalities, have so far escaped accountability or any punitive action.
“These inactions resulting in illegal acts by the guardians of law and order incite social unrest and shake the social fabric,” the court remarked.
It said that the state has not evolved an effective deterrent to stem this rot.
“We have, in our city, an equal number of illegal structures. Indirectly granting security to the violators is unacceptable. The dichotomy of state is evident, and we do not appreciate it,” the court said.
The court passed the order on a plea filed by a person seeking the demolition of an illegal and unauthorised construction carried out by three others on land they own in Palghar.
The petitioner claimed he had to approach the high court, as the civic authorities had failed to take action despite issuing a demolition notice.
The plea stated that after the demolition notice was issued, the persons who had constructed the structure illegally filed an application before the civic body seeking to regularise it.
The bench said that it has come across such cases routinely, wherein a person first constructs a structure without permission and then seeks to regularise the construction.
The court, while ordering the authorities to demolish the unauthorised structure, said such blatant illegal construction cannot be regularised.
It also directed the Vasai Virar civic body to initiate prosecution against people responsible for the illegal construction.
It ordered the commissioner of the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation to initiate appropriate action against civic officials for failing to initiate action against the illegal structure to instil in them due regard for the rule of law.
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