Supreme Court mulls CBI probe into 'illegal' constructions in Delhi's Chandni Chowk

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday indicated that it may order a CBI probe into alleged illegal constructions in the busy Chandni Chowk area of Delhi and failure of the MCD to check it.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh expressed its concern and blamed the inaction of officials of Municipal Corporation of Delhi to check the unauthorised constructions in the commercial hub of the city.

"We are inclined to order a CBI investigation into these constructions and involvement of officials in allowing the builders to construct these structures. Builders construct these buildings and you shut your eyes," Justice Surya Kant observed.

The counsel appearing for the MCD said the alleged unauthorized construction has been removed pursuant to the orders of the Delhi High Court, where matter is still pending.

Justice Surya Kant said, "When someone comes with a PIL, then suddenly you wake up... The high court unfortunately does not even allow petitioners to say something and suddenly closes the case based on your statement. We will direct the CBI to investigate everything." The bench asked the petitioner to serve the notice to the parties, who have not been served and posted the matter for further hearing next week.

It said, "This matter requires not only the inspection of the site by an expert team, including the measurements, the affairs of the municipal corporation would also need to be gone into for permitting illegal and unauthorized commercial constructions apparently for extraneous considerations. There shall be a show cause as to why a deeper probe should not be ordered."

The bench told the petitioner, who appeared in-person, that it cannot pass orders without hearing the other side and asked her to suggest names of some independent persons like architects and engineers for the constitution of a committee that can go and inspect the site.

The top court was hearing a plea challenging two orders of the Delhi High Court including one relating to removal of unauthorized construction at Bagh Deewar, Fatehpuri of Chandni Chowk area which was disposed of on the statements of the MCD that illegal structures have been removed.