The Supreme Court has said that the people who have purchased flats at Maradu municipality which were later demolished for environmental violation are to be blamed equally.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice BV Nagarathna said that anyone who spends his hard earned money would always be cautious of his investment.
Justice Nagarathna said that it is equally the responsibility of the homebuyers. She further questioned that can someone buy anywhere just because builder is building? She added that we have to balance everyone’s interest, everyone must face the music. These were not rural or illiterate people.
These remarks were made by the bench when group of homebuyers came up to court with difficulties faced by them due to court order leading to the demolition of their flats.
The Supreme Court was hearing applications by buyers who purchased the flats at Kerala’s Maradu municipality, which had to be demolished as they were built on the Coastal Regulatory Zone.
Later on a review petition was filed against this judgment by a builder of one of the apartment arguing that the judgment was based on the incorrect understanding . He also added that the building was in compliance with the CRZ norms.
In September 2019, the top court ordered the Kerala government to pay ₹25 lakh as an interim compensation to the owners who were harmed..which was to be recovered from the builders and the remainder to be awarded to the flat owners to be evaluated by the Justice TB Radhakrishnan committee.
The Court also asked the builder to deposit ₹20 crores with the committee.
The report of the committee tabled before the Supreme Court said that officials of the panchayat had issued the building permits, and later failed to issued any stop memo to the builders.
The committee also found that as per the CRZ classification,the demolished buildings fell in a no development zone as per the relevant notification.
Consequently, the committee said the liability would be not just on the builder alone, but also on the State government and the concerned municipality and panchayat.