The Supreme Court has stayed the demolition of an alleged illegal construction carried out by BJP MLA Pradeep Batra of Roorkee for two weeks.
The division bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice B.R. Gavai asked the MLA to move the High Court with his request.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared on behalf of Batra, submitted the MLA himself will remove all illegal constructions after inspection and identification by Roorkee-Haridwar municipal authorities.
The Counsel also admitted that if Batra fails to break the unauthorized construction within a week of such identification by the municipal authorities, the authorities are free to demolish it with the help of the local police force.
The bench agreed to give the MLA two weeks’ time to approach the Uttarakhand High Court with a formal application.
The court said, “The High Court is free to accept or reject the suggestion / motion made by the petitioners. We are not expressing any opinion on the merits of the said statement.”
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Earlier, the high court had paved the way for the demolition of a large part of Batra’s property in Roorkee, rejecting his plea that a request for settling the dispute after paying for the illegal construction, is pending since 2017. The order had come on public interest litigation by one Gaurav Pundir in 2017. Pundir alleged that the MLA and his family had illegally constructed a building on Nazul land in Roorkee.