India must be the only country where every building is illegal in some way or the other.

Media is aghast at the brazen use of power to demolish the house of Kangana Ranawat [spelled (Ranaut)] by Maharashtra Government in Mumbai. But there is nothing surprising. The word draconian falls short to explain the powers given to Municipal Authorities and the brazen corruption. It must be kept in mind that the most corrupt offices and officers are most loyal to political masters. More on that but first try to understand the practical legal situation about building laws in India.

These are excerpts from my ebook titled “Corruption in India: (History, Law and Politics)” in relation to Illegal Constructions:

Illegal Construction

Here I am using the world ‘illegal’ rather loosely and not strict sense. Therefore it includes enchroachment, irregular, unauthorised, condonable, compundable and all other terms used in Building laws to denote what is not permissible in law.

Sanjay Baru was Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of India between 2004-2008 and has written about his tenure in Prime Minister’s Office in his book “Accidental Prime Minister – The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh.” He has also written about the Prime Minister’s residence 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, New Delhi. (At the time of Baru it was called 7 Race Course Road.) Entry to PMO is narrated by Baru in these words:

“I went to meet Dr Singh on Monday at the prime minister’s sprawling official residence, 7 Race Course Road—7 RCR as it is popularly called—at the edge of Lutyens’ Delhi and bordering diplomatic enclave. After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the security around the PM’s official residence has become so elaborate that entering it is quite an ordeal. The Special Protection Group (SPG), an elite security unit protecting the PM, which was created in 1985 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, allows in only such visitors whose names have been provided to them by the personal secretary to the PM. After driving through the first gate of the outer compound, visitors alight near the second gate. Only ministers, authorized officials and foreign dignitaries are allowed to drive through the second gate, and get into SPG vehicles that will take them a couple of hundred yards down the road to the PMO. Those less privileged must first walk into a visitors’ room, deposit their mobile phones and be screened by security. Only then are they ferried by the SPG in its fleet of Maruti cars to the Prime Minister’s Office.”

Do you notice the illegalities visible from this very paragraph? I will explain it, but notice this paragraph:

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