PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Tuesday expressed concern at the slow pace of sealing of allegedly illegal structures in Anjuna and asked the village panchayat to file a detailed statement before the Court on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Panchayat told the court verbally that 114 structures had been sealed.
Meanwhile, owners of structures who had approached the Supreme Court against the High Court order to seal their establishments have been told -- via an order from the Supreme Court -- that they should file for modification of the High Court’s order if they so wish.
Another owner has already filed an application before the High Court seeking modification of its order claiming that his structure was ‘temporary’ and should be classified as a ‘hut’ thereby not requiring permissions from the authorities.
“We have filed an application for modification of the order passed by the HC in respect of our structure which we claim is entirely a temporary structure and being a temporary structure, we don't really require permissions as stated in the earlier order of the HC. Therefore we are asking for modification,” Adv Nitin Sardesai said.
“Our case is that if it is permanent it can be called a building. The case of whether it is temporary or permanent is based on the frame of the structure -- and this is recognized by the technical code -- building code that the building can be on the load bearing columns and beams or the load can be on the wall. In the case of a shack there is normally no wall at all. So if you just put up a structure on a frame which is not concrete, it will qualify to be a temporary structure and accordingly it will not be a building and at the highest it will qualify to be a hut and therefore we don't require permission,” Adv Sardesai added.
“To that extent the court will now have to apply its mind -- whether we qualify to be a permanent structure or no or is it a temporary structure. The HC has placed it for orders,” he added.
