SC seeks names of officials posted in Kasauli during illegal constructions

Last week, a Kasauli hotelier Vijay Singh shot dead Shail Bala Sharma, an assistant town planner of Solan district.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know from Himachal Pradesh government the names and designations of officials who were posted at Kasauli when the unauthorised constructions came up there.

The apex court also asked the state to apprise it about the specific steps taken to ensure that no unauthorised construction was carried out in the entire state and how it proposes to tackle the issue.

A bench of Justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta also asked the state about the steps it proposes to take to remove the debris of unauthorised constructions which were demolished in several hotels at Kasauli.

“Unless you take action and remove four-five people from service, nothing will fall in line,” the bench told the advocate general of Himachal Pradesh.

The apex court asked the state to file a status report on the questions raised by it and posted it for hearing in the first week of August.

The Supreme Court had earlier termed as very unfortunate the killing of a woman officer, who was supervising demolition of an unauthorised construction, allegedly by a Kasauli hotel owner saying it was due to the “non-implementation” of law.

Assistant Town and Country Planner Shail Bala Sharma had on May 1 gone to supervise the demolition of unauthorised construction at Kasauli’s Narayani Guest House where its owner Vijay Singh had allegedly shot at her. She later succumbed to injuries, while another government official accompanying her had sustained serious injuries.

The apex court had pulled up the Himachal Pradesh government and said it cannot “encourage” people who break the law and carry out illegal constructions while asking it to ensure implementation of the law on illegal constructions.