PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on the secretary of Camurlim village panchayat for delaying the complete demolition of an illegal structure, holding that his actions had unnecessarily prolonged the case for nearly a year.
The division bench of Justice Valmiki Menezes and Justice Amit Jamsandekar directed that secretary Rajesh Assolkar make the payment to the petitioner Sankalp Karpe within a week. Disposing of the petition, the court further directed that the penalty be recorded in Assolkar's service records.
During the hearing, the court was informed that the Directorate of Panchayats had already issued a warning memo to Assolkar after being directed to initiate action against him for not completing the demolition of an offending structure despite judicial directions. The court observed that the directorate, after considering his reply, instead opted to take a lenient view and issue only a warning. However, the petitioner pressed for costs against the panchayat and sought that responsibility for the delay be fixed on the secretary.
The court observed that in affidavits dated January 15, 2026 and February 20, 2026, the secretary had maintained that no plinth structure remained beneath the debris and that the demolition was complete. “Obviously, the secretary was covering up his action to ascertain this position,” the court observed.
The bench noted that because of the stand taken by the secretary, the high court was compelled to appoint Advocate Maria Correia as court commissioner to inspect the site and submit a report.
The commissioner's report revealed that “an entire plinth was seen below the debris, which forms part of the original offending structure, and has not been removed,” contradicting the secretary’s claims before the court.
The bench further noted that during the pendency of the proceedings it had also been forced to initiate steps for recovery of demolition costs through revenue proceedings. Those proceedings are still pending before the Bardez mamlatdar.
