'RWAs as responsible as civic bodies to check the menace'

NEW DELHI: Resident welfare associations (RWAs) would be equally responsible to check illegal constructions in their locality as the DDA or MCD, the high court has held.
Disposing a bunch of petitions filed by RWA of Basant Enclave (SFS Flats) on the issue of encroachments in their locality, a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed observed it was not fair to fix the responsibility of checking illegal construction activity on the DDA or MCD alone.
"In the scheme of things the role of registered agency (RWA) as regards the maintaining the sanctity of common portions is very important. Unfortunately all the flat owners, though they are required to do so, are not the members of said welfare association," the Bench said.
The Bench also observed that the common areas or common portions in multi-storey DDA flats cannot be grabbed by a group of allottees or an individual.
"So far as the exclusive use of top portions by the top floor owner is concerned, we feel the top terrace is a common portion as described in DDA regulations of 1986 and the use of the same is not exclusive to the top floor owners," the Bench held.
Chalking out modalities for welfare association, the court observed that RWA should first try to dissuade the resident against encroachment, failing which it should bring to the notice of DDA and the MCD.