Mumbai, Mar 15 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government to appoint a retired High Court judge as head of a committee to scrutinise the past records and fix responsibility for rampant illegal constructions that have come up between 1987 and 2004 in the Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) area.

Assistant Government Pleader Pradip Patil informed the court that the state government had recently spoken to eight retired chief secretaries. But only D K Afzalpurkar has agreed to head the committee and he, too, had sought some time to go through the documentation.

A division bench, comprising Justice F I Rebello and Justice R M Sawant, rejected the nomination of Mr Afzalpurkar on the grounds of his age and observed that in such a case the only option available now is to appoint a retired High Court Judge to head the committee.

Accordingly, the court has directed the state to suggest some names and also fix terms and conditions of the appointment.

The matter will come up for hearing after two weeks.

Meanwhile, senior counsel A S Rao, appearing on behalf of KDMC, has tendered an affidavit disclosing the number of illegal constructions.

The affidavit indicates that there are roughly 68,000 illegal constructions in the corporation area and ward D leads with 33,760 illegal constructions.

UNI