KARACHI, Oct 23: The Supreme Court has declined to order demolition of Saima Trade Tower or restrain the Karachi Building Control Authority from issuing it occupancy certificate.
Upholding a Sindh High Court decision refusing a number of interlocutory orders requested by petitioners Ardeshir Cowasjee, Shehri and five others in a writ petition filed by them in 2001, an SC bench, comprising Justices Hamid Ali Mirza and Karamat Nazir Bhandari, observed in a judgment made available on Thursday that “this court has always declined to entertain civil petitions wherein interlocutory orders/fragmentary decisions are challenged unless a very strong case of exceptional nature is made out”.
The petitioners sought a number of interim orders against the builders, the KBCA and 11 other respondents in their petition before the high court and approached the Supreme Court when an SHC division bench rejected their plea.
In their petition for leave to appeal, they also questioned the SHC direction to implead in the proceedings the purchasers of accommodation in the 20-storeyed building.
The petitioners sought a declaration that the original and revised plans for the building were “ab initio” null and avoid as they were approved in violation of the lease/land-grant conditions. Since the building was liable to be demolished, they submitted, the builders be asked not to create third party interest and the KBCA be restrained from issuing “any revised/regularization approved plans or a no-objection or occupancy certificate”. The utilities were sought to be restrained from sanctioning their connections.
The Supreme Court held that the SHC rightly refused to grant interim reliefs. It noted the respondents’ submission that “all 20 floors of the building were complete and completion certificates have been issued”. The KBCA, it noted, has filed documents showing that approval was accorded for raising a commercial building on the plot in question and that the building plan was also duly approved. “We find no legal or factual infirmity in the finding of the high court, leave to appeal is declined and the petition is dismissed”.
