HYDERABAD, March 17: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to a construction company for showing disregard for court orders retraining it from building a commercial plaza adjacent to a residential colony.
The court appointed additional registrar as commissioner to visit the site and submit a report on the next date of hearing following a contempt of court application filed by two residents of Oad Colony.
Haji Mohammad Essa and Jan Mohammad had filed the petition, challenging construction of a commercial plaza in the colony’s vicinity. The court had earlier stayed work on the plaza.
The applicants requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the builder Dr. Tariq Mehmood Memon, his agents and servants Ayub, manager Babu, labour supervisor Aurangzeb, Shoukat and others.
They were informed directly by the court’s bailiff about status quo order and directives given to the SHO of GOR police station and served them a notice as well but the respondents intentionally and knowingly disobeyed the order and used filthy language against the court staff, they said.
They alleged that the respondents replied to the bailiff “we have seen many such orders. Do whatever you have to do!”. They showed disrespect to court by carrying on construction work in collusion with the Hyderabad Development Authority and the SHO of GOR police station, they said.
The petitioners had cited in their petition M/S Tariq Enterprises Builders and Developers, the sponsors of Chalets, secretary of local government, district nazim, director general of the HDA, director of Building Control and administrative officer to the district nazim as respondents.
Their colony is located adjacent to the Chalets project, launched by the respondent Tariq Enterprises and work on the project has started adjacent to the houses of Abdul Aziz, Bilal, Jan Mohammad, Mohammad Yaseen and Abdul Ghaffar, despite the residents’ objections and without seeking approval from authorities.
They said that the poor residents moved many applications to the director of Building Control who then asked the M/S Tariq Enterprises to stop construction work till the matter had been decided and warned the project would be sealed in case of non-compliance.
They said that the deputy director reported after visiting the site that due to opening of balconies and windows, the residents’ privacy would be affected. The point should be taken into consideration when the plaza’s plan was revised, they said.
They said that the plaza’s construction was illegal as the owners and sponsors of the project had not got the plan approved by concerned authorities.
They said that they had informed the authorities that they felt difficulty sitting in their corridor or work and could not even go to kitchen, bathroom and lavatory due to galleries and windows of the plaza.
They claimed that they had been illegally deprived of their right to clean environment and said that authorities were bound to provide them adequate relief.
They said that the project’s sponsor in collusion with other respondents continued unabated work on the plaza’s construction and prayed the court to declare that the respondents had no right to violate the sanctity of chador and char deewari and they should be directed to construct the wall according to the revised plan.
They requested the court to restrain the respondent owner of the project from opening balconies and windows towards the colony.
