Come clean to complaint on illicit construction

CHENNAI:  A person making a complaint of unauthorised construction against a neighbour should first prove that he constructed his house with necessary approval from the CMDA and Chennai Corporation, the Madras HC observed on Friday.    “We have come across several cases where the persons who seek such directions in writ petitions have themselves constructed their houses/buildings without approval of the sanctioned plan or in violation of the approved plan,’’ the first bench of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam observed.It directed the CMDA and the Chennai Corporation to ensure that the persons, who were making the complaints against unauthorised constructions, had themselves not constructed their houses/buildings without the sanctioned plan or had done so in violation thereof, before taking any action.A person, who constructed his building or house illegally or without approved plan, had no legal right to move this court and seek a direction for taking action against the adjacent owner allegedly making construction unauthorisedly or in  violation of the approved plan. In such cases, the Corporation and the CMDA should  take action against both persons - the one who was constructing the building and the complainant who made an illegal construction.The bench was passing orders on a writ petition from Elizebeth Ebenezer, who complained that her neighbour Balasubramanium was putting up an illegal construction on Karthikeyan Salai in Periyar Nagar.