New Delhi, Jan. 16: The Union environment ministry today ordered the demolition of the 31-storey Adarsh housing society building in Mumbai that violated coastal laws, set off a political and defence scandal and claimed the job of a chief minister.

The ministry said the entire structure should be removed within three months as it was unauthorised and had not received any clearance under the coastal protection laws of 1991.

Two other options — part-demolition or government takeover — were rejected by the ministry. The Adarsh society has questioned the ministry’s jurisdiction and said it is exploring legal options.

An inquiry by the ministry had revealed that the building had not been approved either by the Union ministry or the Maharashtra government. State coastal authorities had even sent a show-cause notice to the Adarsh management in November 2009.

The defence ministry had initially indicated that the structure was intended to benefit war widows, but the apartments were sold to politicians’ relatives, former defence officials and bureaucrats.

“I have decided on option 1 (full demolition),” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said. “The fact that there may well be other cases of similar violations provides no grounds for mitigation of the penalty attracted by such egregious violation as that by ACHS,” he said.

Environment ministry officials have said that under the coastal zone regulations notified in 1991, the structure near the Mumbai coastline may have been eligible to receive approval for up to six storeys — if the co-operative housing society had applied for mandatory approval.

But Ramesh said his ministry rejected the option of part-demolition of the structure since “this would have been tantamount to regularising or condoning an egregious violation” of the coastal zone regulations of 1991.

He said the third option of government takeover of the land was being rejected as that would still be tantamount to regularising a violation.

The housing society had claimed that the urban development department of the Maharashtra government had the power to approve the project under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), and had cleared the project on March 15, 2003. But the environment ministry has clarified that the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) was the agency authorised to approve projects under the CRZ.

In its final report on the Adarsh scandal, released today, the ministry said it was not clear “when or whether” Adarsh had applied for CRZ clearance to the urban development department of Maharashtra.