HYDERABAD: A Sindh High Court bench of Hyderabad circuit on Wednesday directed regional director of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to comply with an over three-year-old order of the court regarding removal of encroachment from a person’s land.

The SBCA official is already facing contempt proceedings.

The bench, comprising Justices Nadeem Akhtar and Arshad Hussain Khan, passed the directive and the SBCA officer undertook to comply with it in letter and spirit within six weeks.

The court clarified to him as alleged contemnor that stern action would be taken against them in case of non-compliance of the undertaking. The court adjourned the case till March 16.

The court rejected a statement filed by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) director general in this regard.

A compliance report was also filed by the SBCA regional director, conceding that the court’s order dated Oct 3, 2017, had not been complied with.

The alleged contemnors said the court order could not be complied with as the HDA and mukhtiarkar concerned were required to clarify the area on which the impugned construction was raised.

The court noted that contemnors did not produce a single document to show that they had approached the mukhtiarkar for such clarification, thus the compliance report of the SBCA was rejected.

SBCA regional director Naveed Asim, who was present in the court, undertook to comply with Oct 3, 2017, order in letter and spirit without fail within six weeks from today.

The court is hearing a petition filed in 2011 by Idrees Ahmed, a resident of Unit-2 Latifabad. The court perused Oct 3, 2017, order authored by Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui.

According to petitioner’s case, he owned a plot in Khalid Fareed Housing Scheme in Qasimabad. In 2009, he learned that construction was going on there. He said that the respondent builder got a plan approved over a piece of land, including an encroached land covering and trespassing the petitioner’s plot.

The construction was raised over 33,126 square feet, including 5,901 square feet of the encroached piece.

Justice Siddiqui while passing Oct 3, 2017, order had said that the petitioner might approach the civil court for redress of his grievance as per law.

He ordered action against delinquent officers responsible for negligence in allowing the respondent builder to raise construction beyond an area to which he was entitled for.

The court had said that a show-cause notice should be issued to the delinquent officers in case the plan was approved beyond the law to which respondent builder was entitled to and strict action should be taken in respect of illegal construction beyond approved plan and beyond the land to which respondent builder was entitled to.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2021