KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has restrained the owners of around a dozen wedding halls located in different parts of the city from using them for commercial purposes after the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) informed the court that these structures were built on the land meant for residential purposes.

The wedding hall owners moved the SHC against ejectment notices issued by the SBCA so that it could demolish such halls in the light of orders passed by the Supreme Court.

The petitioners submitted that the SBCA had threatened them with demolition of their wedding halls without giving any opportunity of hearing and also without examining the record of land/plots.

Earlier, the SHC directed the SBCA to provide an opportunity to the petitioners to produce relevant documents about the title of the subject plots before taking any adverse action or demolition.

Court asks SBCA to refrain from taking any adverse action till Aug 16

When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed took up a set of identical petitions for hearing, the SBCA filed a statement and stated that it had issued ejectment notices after a scrutiny and hearing the petitioners as these wedding halls were illegally constructed on residential plots and located on non-declared commercial roads.

It further stated that previously the cases of conversion of plots from residential into commercial had been withdrawn / cancelled in the light of apex court’s orders.

The SBCA had not accorded any approved building plan for establishment of such banquet halls on residential plots and the same were liable to be demolished, it maintained.

The authority in its statement further submitted that in compliance with the directives issued by the SHC, the SBCA issued notices to the petitioners for a fair opportunity of hearing with directions to produce relevant documents, but they failed to provide any approval or a no-objection certificate for conversion and not attended the office of the authority.

It also stated that as per site inspection, the wedding halls in question had earlier been demolished by the SBCA, but under the garb of interim orders passed in these petitions, the owners were raising constructions again on the subject land.

The lawyers for petitioners sought time to go through the statement filed by the SBCA and assured the bench that no construction activity would be carried out and such premises would also not be put in commercial use whatsoever until next hearing.

Adjourning the hearing till Aug 16, the bench directed the SBCA to ensure the same strictly in accordance with law.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023