SC empathises with ‘middle-class’ owners who lost their homes in 2020 Maradu high-rise building demolitions

Supreme Court shows empathy for Maradu residents affected by high-rise demolition, considers relief options, questions CRZ violation.

Four years after ordering the demolition of high-rise buildings at Maradu in Kerala, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 25, 2024) voiced empathy for the families who lost their homes, saying they were “ultimately middle-class who have suffered”.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice BR Gavai asked the Kerala government to work out if “some relief” could be given to them while orally remarking that the entire dispute could have been settled by imposing heavy costs rather than demolition.

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The high-rise buildings — H20 Holy Faith, Alfa Serene, Jain Coral Cove and Golden Kayaloram — were razed to the ground in January 2020 on the orders of the Supreme Court the previous year in May. The top court had found that the four apartment complexes were built in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), which allowed construction only beyond 200 metres of the high tide line.

One of the lawyers appearing for the residents’ associations submitted that their demolished high-rise was not even in breach of the CRZ norms. He said the 2019 judgment had been based on the assumption that the area fell within the CRZ-III limits where no construction was permitted.. The top court had based its order on the CRZ notification of 1991, and the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Plan, 1996.

“But there was a more recent Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) prepared pursuant to a 2011 CRZ notification which was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on February 28, 2019 by which Maradu area of Ernakulam was categorised under CRZ-II… The construction was permissible,” the lawyer argued.

Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, who represented the State of Kerala along with advocate Nishe Rajen Shonker, said Kerala has already submitted a Coastal Zone Management Plan of 2019 to the Union government for consideration. Construction in the area may be permissible under the Plan under consideration.