The Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside the planning permission granted by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) on September 13, 2024, for constructing multi-storey apartments at the sprawling Parthasarathy Gardens in Alwarpet.
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan held that a muti-storey apartment could not be permitted in the locality without legally modifying the layout conditions imposed by the Chennai Corporation in 1968 when Menaka Parthasarathy developed the property into a residential layout.
The judge disagreed with CMDA’s contention that the layout condition, insisting upon construction of only one dwelling unit on each plot besides restricting the construction to two-third of the plot area, had been superseded by the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules (TNCDBR), 2019.
He said, such a contention was untenable. “The argument that the layout conditions got nullified on the promulgation of TNCDBR, 2019 is nothing but a red herring and accordingly, it is rejected,” the judge wrote while allowing a writ petition filed by three residents of the locality.
Choodamani Narayanan, Sadayavel Kailasam, and Sriram Sivaraman had filed the writ petition jointly challenging the permission granted by CMDA to Archana Ruia and RUIA Developers LLP, based in Bengaluru, to construct a four-storey building with two apartments on each floor in the locality.
