Sindh Building Control Authority Special Court West’s order challenged in High Court, notice issued

Karachi (HRNW) Advocate Nadeem Ahmed Jamal, who is active in the implementation of construction laws, has challenged the order of the District and Sessions Judge West’s court, which also has the powers of a special court of the Sindh Building Control Authority.

Petitioner Rohail Siddiqui had filed a criminal complaint against illegal constructions at Plot No. SR-25, Sector 5D, Surjani Town, which was rejected by the Special Court SBCA West under Section 19(2) of the SBCO.

The court wrote in its decision that under this section, only the SBCO can file a criminal complaint against the builder. Against this order, Advocate Nadeem Ahmed Jamal filed a criminal revision in the Sindh High Court, challenging it.

Today, during the hearing of the case in the court of Justice Omar Sial of the Sindh High Court, learned Advocate Nadeem Ahmed Jamal argued that the order of the SBCA Special Court West is against the law because the Sindh High Court has given detailed decisions in this regard that if any person has a complaint about any illegal construction, he can file a complaint with the institution and if the institution does not take any action on the complaint within 30 days, he can approach the SBCA Special Court.

Advocate Nadeem Ahmed also referred to several orders of the High Court in this regard and said that the trial court did not have the authority to decide whether Section 19(2) was maintainable, because the detailed order of the High Court in CP No. D-3465/2024 had directed the private petitioner to approach the SBCA Special Court.

Advocate Nadeem Ahmed Jamal further said that it should have been that the Sindh Building Control Authority would have filed a review in the same court regarding Section 19(2) of the SBC Ordinance 1979 and raised this objection there, but this was not done and it directly filed this objection in the Special Court.

After hearing the arguments of Advocate Nadeem Ahmed Jamal, the Sindh High Court ordered to issue notices to the parties and fixed the next date of hearing as August 25, 2025.