High Court gives breather to Adarsh demolition

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said before passing a verdict on demolishing the controversial Adarsh Housing Society, it wants to hear the promoters of the building and Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

“Anything which is illegal needs to be demolished. We agree with that, but at this stage we would like to first hear the arguments to satisfy our judicial conscience. Demolition is a drastic step,” said the division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R G Ketkar.

In January, the MoEF ordered the demolition of the 31-storied Adarsh Society building, a tower of controversy over illegal allotments of apartments meant for Kargil heroes’ families, as the building did not have the necessary green clearance.