Madurai Architecture body moves HC

The Indian Institute of Architects (Tiruchirapalli chapter) has moved the Madurai bench of the Madras high court seeking to quash a recent government order revising and re-issuing a new set of building rules under the name, “Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules (TNCDB), 2019” combining all the existing building rules under corporations, municipalities, town and village panchayats. The Municipal administration and water supply department which issued the GO contended that TNCDB rules were made to simplify rules and procedures for approval, promote better use of scarce land among other things. The petitioner contended that the TNCDB rule is arbitrary, illegal and is a fraud on the constitutional mandate which proclaims that the 3 tier institutions created under the panchayat raj system are a democratic means for political empowerment of people at all grass root level for shaping their own destiny. The TNCDB rules absolve authorities to engage in systemic and region-specific planning and all planning powers exercised thus far under the town and country planning act, with the aim of applying uniform building and development rules throughout the state, the petitioner stated. This act of making a single uniform set of parameters for the entire state is nothing but illogical and irresponsible act by the government because of factors such as lifestyle differences between urban and rural dwellers. “The activities or spaces required for a wedding hall in a village or a vehicle parking in Mylapore, Chennai and at a village is entirely different,” the petitioner stated and pointed out various problems authorities will face. For instance, the same width of the staircase at a college is not required at a research center where only 10 people are working, though both are categorized as ‘Institutional’. Therefore, even a molecular modification on these lines will have a substantial and long-lasting effect on the orderly development in a society and hence it cannot be lost sight of lightly in the planning process, the petitioner stated and sought for quashing the GO.