SHILLONG: The Supreme Court on Tuesday further extended the stay against demolition of illegal structures along the Wahumkhrah.
After the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the Court asked the respondents to file a reply, while stating that the interim stay will continue till further orders.
While the Meghalaya Government was represented by Supreme Court lawyer Ranjan Mukherjee, MUDA was represented by Advocate Vijay Hansaria.
It was on September 14 that the Supreme Court, through an interim order, gave relief to as many as 30 families when MUDA was prepared to demolish their buildings as per the order of the High Court of Meghalaya.
On September 18, the apex court extended the stay till September 30 against the order of the High Court of Meghalaya to demolish the illegal constructions. Tuesday’s extension is the third by the top court.
Earlier in January this year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered dismantling of all unauthorized structures along the Wahumkhrah within three months.
Subsequently, MUDA had issued notices to several residents along Wahumkhrah.
Following this, as many as 30 petitioners had filed a case in the civil court thereby securing a stay against the demolition order.
However, MUDA challenged the order of the civil court and later the High Court vacated the stay order of the civil court which enabled MUDA to carry out demolition of the illegal structures.
Later, the petitioners approached the Supreme Court as per the provisions of NGT Act and the apex court stayed the order of the High Court.
