Axe falls on 18 architects for flouting OC norms

Gurgaon: Almost three months after they were blacklisted by the director of the department of town and country planning (DTCP), the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has taken action against 18 architects involved in issuing occupancy certificates (OC) for buildings with four floors, violating the govt's guidelines.
The chief town planner of the HSVP has now written to the senior officials of the information technology department ordering removal of the blacklisted architects' IDs from the online building plan approval system.
In addition, a detailed report on the removal process is expected to be submitted soon for further review by the DTCP director.
A senior HSVP official said, "These architects, responsible for unlawfully certifying multiple residential structures, have been blacklisted and their details will soon be uploaded on the HSVP website."
In July, the director had blacklisted these architects and written to the council of architecture, requesting the cancellation of the registration of these architects.
The process of cancelling their registration is currently under review by the council and it is expected to take a few months.
The architects approved OCs for buildings with four floors and stilt parking, bypassing regulations set by the authorities.
The HSVP had already placed restrictions on the construction of four floors in Feb 2023.
Despite this, these architects issued OCs under the Self-Certification Rules without ensuring proper compliance with building norms. They also issued OCs for buildings that didn't have sanctioned plans for four floors.
Many of these structures had not even deposited essential fees like floor-area ratio (FAR) and external development charges (EDC), making their OC issuance illegal.
During an investigation, about 58 houses were found to have received OCs in violation of rules. The then town planner had listed these properties, prompting the current action against the architects.
The blacklisted architects include Anuj Yadav, Saurabh Kathuria, Pankaj Kumar, Himani Gupta, Amit Bhardwaj, Krishana, Ganendra Kumar, Manveer Bhadana, Vikrant Pundir, Arun Kumar, Ravi, Prabhat Kumar, Gaurav Singla, Puneet Kochar, Rohit Chugh, Ujjwal Saini, Neeraj Dixit and Ritika Anand.
These architects face an uncertain future as the council of architecture continues its investigation into their misconduct.