No Supreme Court Relief For Gurgaon Builder Floors Amid Demolition Drive
The demolition drive is part of an anti-encroachment exercise planned by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), which is set to cover 44 sectors of Gurgaon starting today
New Delhi: Today, the Supreme Court refused to stay the demolition in Gurgaon while allowing an urgent mention before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on such issue. The Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu was directed to take up the matter today by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
Senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan orally mentioned this while flagging concerns over the demolition drive against “stilt-plus-four” buildings in the city.
Gurgaon: “Demolitions are almost ready to begin now in Gurgaon. The old policy was meant to be followed with respect to stilt-plus-four buildings, the high court had ruled. However, now authorities have told officials to go house-to-house and demolish buildings. They cut trees, compound walls go down. We were never told by high court to demolish, ” he added.
While the high court has merely reiterated compliance with existing policy guidelines, demolition on a large scale had already commenced across several areas, he said. On April 2, the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed an interim order staying operation of the Haryana government’s ‘stilt-plus-four floors’ building policy approving construction four residential floors on top of stilt parking.
The high court flagged serious concerns and said that it seems the state has put public safety at risk just to earn higher revenue. This interim order came on a petition filed challenging a July 2024 order of additional chief secretary (town and country planning department). It had permitted ‘stilt-plus-four floors’ on residential plots while raising the earlier cap of ‘stilt-plus-three floors’.
Even where building plans had not been sanctioned, it had introduced a mechanism for composition. In the wake of high court’s stay, Haryana officials had initiated a drive against unauthorised encroachments across cities to clear unauthorized constructions, starting with Gurgaon.
Sankaranarayanan today, seeking interim relief said: “Take a status quo for three days. We would move the high court. It is children who are out in the open even when demolitions take place. No notice has been given. These are all legal constructions.”
Hearing the submissions, Chief Justice of India said that the structures being talked about were unauthorised and high court could look into it.
“These are unauthorised structures. What makes this special as a matter of procedure, is that the high court can investigate this, said Chief Justice Kant.
The demolition drive is a part of Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) anti-encroachment exercise, which will cover 44 sectors of Gurgaon on Friday onwards.
The Department of Town and Country Planning had organised a five-day demolition drive in the city earlier.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 2026 stayed the operation of the policy while deciding a bunch of PILs against it. The court had expressed disbelief over poor civic infrastructure saying more floors will stress roads, sewage and drainage systems.
Soon after the stay, the Haryana government launched a major drive against illegal constructions and encroachments of various types – from misuse of stilt area to extending built-up areas beyond what was approved in plans. The drive was conceptualised as time-bound enforcement in nature and a roll-out was initiated from localities like DLF Phase 1.
In a bid to comply with the high court’s interim order, authorities later this month demolished encroachments in licensed colonies within few days which included boundary walls, ramps and kiosks.
But the residents and petitioners contended that the high court order had only stayed the policy and required compliance with earlier norms, not a blanket demolition.
News Source : NDTV.com
