Madras high court has imposed 1 lakh cost on Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) commissioner J Kumaragurubaran, upset over his inaction over unauthorized construction in Royapuram zone. The first bench of Chief Justice K R Shriram and Justice Sundar Mohan directed the state govt to deduct the amount from the commissioner's salary and deposit it into account of Adyar Cancer Institute. The court passed the order on a contempt petition moved by advocate N Rukmanganthan saying the corporation failed to comply with a court order dated April 8, 2022, to remove unauthorized construction in Zone 5. On April 26, when the plea came up for hearing, the court censured the GCC for not doing enough against illegal buildings and unauthorized constructions in the city. The court observed that it gave an impression that the GCC did not want to take action against the violators. The bench accused Kumaragurubaran of intentionally not providing adequate details of action taken against such violations. "Strangely and we would say intentionally, the commissioner has chosen not to give details of the notices issued, state whether those notices were responded to, state what action was taken thereafter, and state whether those unauthorized deviated buildings were demolished. In paragraph 14 of the affidavit filed by the commissioner, it is only stated that the corporation also took further action and locked and sealed unauthorised/deviated buildings, and around 242 buildings were locked and sealed. Responding to the observations, counsel for the corporation submitted that he would file all the details and also make available for inspection the documents for the petitioner's advocate within a week. Since the corporation failed to provide the details as promised, the bench imposed the cost on the commissioner.
 

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