Delhi High Court: While hearing a batch of petitions raising concern about the character of various heritage properties, the Division Bench of Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, CJ and Tejas Karia, J, directed the Municipal Corporation Delhi (MCD) to conduct a survey of all buildings situated in the vicinity of the concerned heritage properties to ascertain whether they are in accordance with the norms and approved sanctioned plans.
The grievances raised in the instant petition were that constructions which are taking place or which have already taken place around certain heritage properties tend to change the character of such heritage properties and also lead to the defacement of the heritage buildings.
The petitioners also averred that in many cases, while approving the building plans, the MCD ignores the relevant building bye-laws as well as the advice tendered by the Heritage Conservation Committee. It was further submitted that the occupiers of the buildings situated in the vicinity of such heritage properties also deviate from the sanctioned building plan which also has an adverse impact in the heritage properties.
Accordingly, the Court directed that a survey shall be conducted by the concerned Municipal Body, of all the buildings situated in the vicinity of the heritage properties enlisted in each of these petitions. In the survey, it shall appropriately be ascertained as to whether the constructions raised in such buildings, which are in the vicinity of the heritage properties, are in accordance with the norms and the approved sanctioned building plan.
The Court further directed that the survey team to be constituted by the Municipal Body shall also include one officer of the Heritage Conservation Committee to be nominated by its Chairperson. The survey report in respect of each heritage property as mentioned in these petitions shall be filed before the Court.
[Kusum Sehgal v. Heritage Conservation Committee, 2026 SCC OnLine Del 395, decided on 28-1-2026]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: Sanjay Dewan, Senior Advocate, M. Qayam-Ud-Din, Navneet Chaudhary, Nikhil Goel, Arshia Kohli, Hemant Choudhary, Pooja Marwah, Sheetal Sharma, Soumya Aneja, Advocates
For the Respondent: Febin Mathew Varghese, Dhiraj Philip Abraham, Soyarchon Khangrah, Sahaj Garg, SPC, Rudra Paliwal, GP, Soumyadip Chakraborty, Beenshaw N. Soni, SC, MCD, Ann Joseph, Katyani Malhotra, Raghvendra Upadhyay, Panel Counsel, GNCTD, Purnima Jain, Swaraj Maurya, Nayantara Roy, S.I. Brij Mohan, PS Kotwali, Arumina Dwivedi, Himanshi Singh, Monalisa Pradhan, Sanjeev Sabharwal, SC, MCD, Manish Srivastava, Moksh Arora, Santosh Ramdurg, Advocates