Supreme Court orders status quo on demolition of Sunni Waqf building near Patna High Court

The Bihar State Sunni Waqf Board (BSSWB), the Bihar State Building Construction Corporation (BSBCC) and the State of Bihar have moved Supreme Court against a Patna High Court order directing demolition of a four-storey Sunni Waqf building adjacent to High Court‘s Centenary building and funded by the State Minority Welfare Department..A Bench of Justices UU Lalit, Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath issued notice in the matter and ordered status quo. The matter will be heard again on October 18..A special bench of the Patna High Court comprising Justices Ashwani Kumar Singh, Vikas Jain, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Rajendra Kumar Mishra and Chakradhari Sharan Singh had, on August 3, 2021 ordered that the building be demolished within a month after it took suo motu cognizance of the matter.The High Court had questioned the State government about the urgency to construct such a building during a pandemic while no other construction was taking place in the State.The Court had declared that the construction was illegal under ‘Bihar Building Bylaws 2014,’ which states that no building should be constructed with a height over 10 meters within 200 meters radius boundary of the Governor’s house, the State Secretariat, the Legislative Assembly, the High Court, and other high-security buildings..The plea before the Supreme Court by BSSWB stated that order directing demolition of the entire structure merely due to the fact that the building was in excess of 10 meters limit was "highly disproportionate".The plea pointed out that five other buildings too have breached the 10 metre height restriction. They are:(i) Bar Council Bhawan (ii) Bar Association Building (iii) A.G. Office (iv) Lalit Narain Mishra Institution (v) Centenary Building of the Patna High Court (vi) Vidyot Bhawan (vii) Niyogan Bhawan.BSWWB submitted that the High Court not only travelled beyond the four issues framed by it but also proceeded to direct demolition of the entire structure of the proposed Wakf Bhawan Building, "solely due to the reason that the building was in excess of 10 meters of height which was in violation of Bye Law No. 21 of the Bihar Building Bye-Laws, 2014.".The plea filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool stated that all parties including the BSSWB as well as the Patna Municipal Corporation have stated that the sanction taken by the Senior Architect of the Bihar Building Corporation was a valid sanction as such an architect is considered a Government Architect and no separate sanction of the Patna Municipal Corporation is required in view of Bye Law No.8(1)(A).The plea by BSBCC drawn by advocate Anmol Chandan and filed through advocate Rishi Kumar Singh Gautam also assailed the High Court order on the ground that the building was being constructed in accordance with law and under the request of Minority Welfare Department of Government of Bihar. It was also pointed out that the building was in accordance with the approved map by the government architect and hence there was no requirement of the plan to have the sanction of Municipal Corporation.