LAW BREAKERS AND LAW MAKERS
Oliver Goldsmith once said: “ The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.” Looking at the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006, it appears that the Indian laws do much more- they reward vice by legalising the violations of law committed with impunity by all concerned- the public, the building mafia, the local authorities and the politicians.
The Government of India was in an unseemly hurry in legislating and passing this Act. It was exempted from the mandatory seven-day notice for consideration. The Act is poorly drafted. Look at the title of the legislation itself- “The Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006.” It talks of special provisions about the Delhi laws, but what are these laws about which special provisions are being made? The title gives no idea about the purpose of legislation. It appears that the government was somewhat diffident to convey through the title that it was trying to prevent demolitions of unauthorized constructions ordered by the courts in Delhi. The Act, in fact, does not use the term “unauthorized constructions”; instead it prefers the phrase “unauthorised development” and defines it to cover the constructions and use of buildings and land in contravention of the sanctioned plans, including encroachment.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons with which the Bill was introduced tries to put considerable gloss over it. The Bill is necessary to enable the government to take all possible measures for the “finalisation of norms, policy guidelines and feasible strategies” to deal with the problems of unauthorized constructions so that, as Section 3 of the Act says, the “development of Delhi can take place in a sustainable and planned manner.” Section 3 gives one year to the government to frame the policies and prescribes that “status quo as on the 1st day of January, 2006 shall be maintained in respect of categories of unauthorized development” mentioned in the Act. This means that no punitive action shall be taken during this period in respect of unauthorized constructions or encroachments that had not been demolished till December 31, 2005.
This law raises more questions than it answers. The problem of illegal constructions and encroachments is not a new one; it has been in Delhi for many years. Why should the government require one year now to design strategies to deal with the problem, when they have not been able to do it for so many years and why should they need a law to do so?
Laws relating to unauthorized constructions or their demolitions have been applied randomly and unequally right from the beginning. These matters in Delhi are regulated as per the provisions of the Unified Building Bye-laws, 1983, which are implemented by local bodies in their respective areas. The fact that the local authorities either did not enforce the bye-laws or overlooked their violations is obvious from the large scale sealing of illegal properties and their demolitions that had to take place under the orders of the courts. Shri Jaipal Reddy, the Union Urban Development Minister admitted in the Lok Sabha on March 6, 2006 that “the extent and magnitude of violations of unauthorized construction and misuse of premises is assessed to be huge and the number of families likely to be affected may be in lakhs..” Obviously, all this did not happen overnight. Why didn’t the government wake up and take action in time? The CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta’s observation that the demolition issue had come to such a sorry pass because of persistent political connivance and corruption may be a part of the explanation.
Even when the demolitions were going on, the courts had to direct the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and other local bodies on many occasions not to adopt the 'pick and choose' policy and initiate action against the 'big fish,' which had violated the building laws with impunity.
The present law adds to the list of laws that are “badly written and randomly enforced” Selecting the cut off date as January 1, 2006 to prevent further demolitions would always invoke peculiar feelings amongst a large number of people whose unauthorized constructions or encroachments unluckily and untimely came under the axe. According to Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s statement in the Lok Sabha, 40,000 shops and 20,000 houses had been brought down in the past few months.
The central government was not alone in formulating a law to regularize violations of law. The Maharastra Government had done it earlier, promulgating an ordinance to regularize 855 illegal buildings in Ulhasnagar that were being threatened with demolition under the orders of the Bombay High Court.
The politicians showed considerable solidarity in passing the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Bill, 2006 to prevent demolitions. The Bill was passed unanimously with both the treasury and opposition benches supporting it.
Why were the politicians so keen to stop demolitions? Was it because of their concern for the hardships caused to the public? Those who know our politicians explain it differently. They passed this law because many of them had their own illegal buildings and encroachments to protect. In addition, this was too good a cause to miss in terms of vote bank politics.
“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer”, Henry Kissinger had said in a different context. Our politicians can surely do both in quick time.
(Original version of an article published in the Indian Express dated May 30, 2006)
