Ravi Kumar was planning a housewarming party at his new flat in mid-July but would now have to postpone it indefinitely.

The employee of a private firm had booked a flat at a new building in SK Nagar. “It is almost complete. I was planning to move from my rented accommodation. But now, I have learnt that all construction work has been stopped after a high court order on illegal buildings,” said Ravi.

He is one of the many victims of a tussle between builders, architects and the civic body after a recent high court order against illegal constructions in the city.

The high court, while hearing a writ petition on May 10, ordered that till further orders, apartments or multi-storeyed buildings cannot be constructed to a height of 11m or more unless the entire stretch of the road in front of it is 20-foot wide. While passing the order, the court had observed twice “we are satisfied that at some point of time a beginning has to be made for the enforcement of the municipal laws…”

In cognisance of the court order, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Kuldip Narayan, in a meeting held on May 22, ordered a survey of all buildings in the city — those which are complete and those still under construction — for which the building plans and maps have been approved by the registered architects over the past couple of years. The civic body is not approving any new building plans for over a month now.

The survey has started revealing startling facts and figures. “Around 1,000 under-construction buildings in Patna have violated building bylaws. According to certain provisions of the building bylaws, if the violations are within permissible limits, it can be condoned. However, the rest of the buildings may face demolition,” Narayan said on Tuesday.

The court order also stated that all its orders should be implemented with the support of the office in-charge of the police station concerned.

Builders allege that the police are now harassing them citing this order.

“It does not matter whether the road is 20-foot wide or not, the local police station is going to all construction sites and asking the builder to stop the construction or pay bribe. Construction is also being stopped where the roads are 20-foot wide,” said Sachin Chandra, chairman, Bihar chapter, Builders’ Association of India.

The association, in a meeting on Monday, decided that it would raise its grievances against the civic body and the police at the high court by acting as an intervener in the ongoing writ petition (CWJC 8152/2013).

Senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj assured builders that their complaints would be addressed. “Builders should come to me with specific complaints. Necessary action would be taken after verification of the allegations,” said Manu.

The tussle has the involvement of a third party: the registered architects of the PMC.

Sources said the civic body did not do any monitoring on the construction activities all these years. Only after the court order, it has tightened the noose around the architects.

It has asked all the registered architects to give details of all the building plans and maps approved by them and the reports of periodic inspection conducted by them later on.

“According to Section 318 of Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, all registered architects are required to periodically inspect the construction of buildings approved by them. Most of the architects have not submitted periodical inspection reports. Section 7 of the Apartment Ownership Act, 2006, also mandates that registered architects should approve the maps of only those buildings, which are being constructed by builders registered with the competent authority. The architects have been asked to submit their final report and explanation by July 5,” said Narayan.

Architects claim that the civic body is trying to pass the buck on them.

“We had approved the maps according to the norms. The builders violated them,” said Arun Kumar, a registered architect with PMC, who has passed 864 maps from 2009 to 2011.

He added: “We are paid only Rs 500 for site inspection. It’s too small a sum. So I, and most others, did not conduct any inspection. We had informed the PMC about it earlier.”