Reconstitute building tribunal: Patna high court

Patna: Patna high court on Monday observed that at least one member of the municipal building tribunal should be a serving state government official. A division bench of Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Vikash Jain was hearing a PIL filed by Narendra Mishra against illegal construction of apartments in the city.Principal additional advocate general (PAAG) Lalit Kishore informed the court that the urban development and housing department has issued the notification regarding constitution of two building tribunals. However, the department secretary’s affidavit mentioned that all the four members for the two tribunals were retired officials, despite the court disapproving the “misconduct” earlier. As per norms, in a tribunal, one member should be of an ADJ rank to be appointed by the high court.”We are of the considered opinion that one of the members in each of the tribunal must be a serving personnel. In the event of an eventuality, merely removal of the member may not suffice. We require the secretary, urban development department, to state on affidavit how it is proposed to exercise regulatory and supervisory control over the retired persons for what may not be actions in good faith, if the occasion arises,” the court had observed.

On Monday, the court observed, “There is no ambiguity in our earlier order and the secretary cannot ignore our order.” It further ordered reconstitution of the tribunals at the earliest.

However, as the PAAG informed that reconstitution may take some time, the court ordered the constitution of at least one tribunal in two weeks and added the second tribunal must be constituted within two weeks of the formation of the first tribunal. The case will again be heard on January 30.