2000CLC978 (PLP)

Ghulam Ali Khokhar and Muhammad Younus for Plaintiff. Ikram Siddiqui for Defendant. It is the case of plaintiff that on 12‑4‑1999 when he went to open his shop at 10‑30 a.m. he saw that his shop was sealed. His shop has been sealed since 12‑4‑1999 and it was without notice otherwise the plaintiff would have challenged the notice. Section 6(1) of Sindh Buildings Control Ordinance, 1979 is as under:‑‑ "6(1) No building shall be constructed before the Authority has, in the prescribed manner, approved the plan of such building and granted no objection certificate for the construction thereof on payment of such fee as may be prescribed: Provided that in the case of a building the construction whereof has commenced before coming into force of this Ordinance, the Authority's approval of the plan and no objection certificate shall be obtained not latter than six months after the enforcement of the Ordinance Section 7‑A of the Sindh Building Control of Ordinance, 1979 is as under:‑‑‑ "7‑A: Where the provisions of subsection (1) of section 6 are violated the building may without prejudice to any other action including sealing of the building or ejectment of the occupants be ordered by the Authority or any officer of the Authority authorized in this behalf to be demolished, at the cost of the builder in the case of public buildings and the owner in other cases. " It is the case of plaintiff that he had purchased the entire plot which included his shop in the year 1987 and according to him after 1987 he has not made any modification or change in the structure which was already existed there. It is the case of plaintiff that in 1993 the Deputy Nazir of this Court had inspected the same premises in Suit No.525 of 1993 and whatever construction was there is mentioned in his report. There has been no modification. Accordingly. Nazir was directed to submit fresh report. The Nazir then visited the SITE and submitted fresh report which has been taken on record and at page 3 of his report dated 18‑5‑1999, he has mentioned that there was no fresh construction or any deviation from the previous old position, which was found by Deputy Nazir on 15‑9‑1993. Learned counsel representing defendant has been confronted with this fact that there has been no fresh construction, the act of sealing the shop may amount misuse of power by the functionaries of the defendant. Learned counsel for defendant has explained that on 10‑12‑1990, a letter was addressed by Assistant Controller Building to the Architect to the plaintiff mentioning seven objections which had to be complied with. This letter has been produced as Annexure "E" to the written statement. This letter is still pending under objections learned counsel for defendants refers to the approved plan of the year 1985. According to him four windows in approved plan of 1985 were removed and replaced with the shutters. Behind these shutter doors, the plot is open but the Nazir has submitted/mentioned two shops in his report. The approval was granted for office use only measuring 12 x 22 feet but the plaintiff converted the office into two shops and increased the use 25 x 70 feet as internal measurement by removing central partition wall without obtaining the permission from the defendant The entire interior side of the shop is repaired without the supervision of the licencee Engineer. As per the Court order dated 14‑5‑1999 Engineer Hyder Jawed, Deputy Controller Building Environment also accompanied the Nazir at the time of site inspection and he also admitted and submitted in his report that interior portion of the shop has been plastered/repaired and also mentioned the block work separated office arid the shade have been removed. After hearing the parties' Counsel and after going through the report of Nazir and Engineer's Report the controversy exists about modification in the premises. Since the shop was sealed on 12‑4‑1999 the seal may be removed by the defendants immediately. If within six months the plaintiff does not get regularized the disputed modification the shop will be resealed. The listed application Civil Miscellaneous Application No.3246 of 1999 stands disposed of. Q.M.H./M.A.K./J‑1/K Order accordingly.