Kolkata, Sept. 8 -- The Calcutta High Court has upheld the conviction of a developer and a property owner for raising an unauthorised G+3 building in a congested Kolkata lane, holding that structural audits or soil tests are not mandatory to prove the likelihood of danger to human life or public infrastructure.
Justice Uday Kumar dismissed the revision petition of developer Biplab Saha and property owner Shukla Das, convicted under Section 401A of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act. Their building at 26/D, Dr Panchanan Mitra Lane was sanctioned only up to G+1 because of the narrow access passage, but a G+3 structure was raised.
The court said Section 401A covers construction that "endangers or is likely to endanger" human life. Thus, once unauthorised multi-storey construction is proved, actual collapse or post-facto forensic evidence is not necessary. The likelihood of hazard is a statutory presumption arising from the physical circumstances.
The prosecution relied on municipal engineers' evidence, the sanctioned plan and a Building Rule Infringement Statement recording violations in open spaces, FAR, ground coverage and height. The permissible height of 6.7 metres had been exceeded.
The accused had challenged the prosecution on grounds including defective municipal authorisation and improper service of stop-work notices.
The court rejected the objections, holding that such technical defects could not undo a completed trial where guilt had been established by substantive evidence.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.