MCD Notice for Unauthorised Construction in Delhi: What Can Be Regularised and What Must Come Down

An MCD notice for unauthorised construction is the start of a legal process with short deadlines, and what you can do about it depends on one question: is the deviation something Delhi's building bye-laws allow to be regularised for a fee, or something they never do? Extra floors, extra dwelling units, missing parking and staircase deviations are in the second group, and no fee cures them. After the Satya Niketan collapse on 6 September 2026 the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said that 'all illegal constructions with more than four floors will be immediately sealed', so many owners are now reading a notice for the first time. This guide explains what each kind of notice means, how long you have, what can and cannot be regularised, and how the building work is done once you know which it is. It is a builder's guide, not legal advice: the reply to a notice and any appeal should be drafted by an advocate who practises before the Appellate Tribunal, and the measured drawings by your architect.

What Kinds of Notice Does the MCD Issue?

The powers are in Chapter XVI of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, and the section number printed on your notice tells you which one you have. Section 344 is a stop-work order: where construction is under way without sanction or contrary to it, the Commissioner can require it to stop 'forthwith', and can ask the police to remove the workmen and seize materials, tools and scaffolding if it does not. Section 345 is an alteration notice: a written notice of not less than seven days, which can be issued during construction or after completion, requiring the owner to make specified alterations to bring the building into line with the sanction, or to show cause why not. Section 343 is the demolition order. It can be made only after a show-cause notice that gives the owner 'a reasonable opportunity of showing cause why such order shall not be made', and the order must allow not less than five and not more than fifteen days from the date it is delivered. Section 345A is sealing, which can be ordered before or after a demolition or stop-work order. Separately, sections 348 and 349 deal with dangerous buildings: the Commissioner can order a building that is ruinous or likely to fall to be demolished, secured or repaired, and can order a building vacated if it is dangerous, has insufficient means of escape in a fire, or is occupied without the completion permission required by section 346.

How Long Do You Have, and Where Does an Appeal Go?

The windows are short. An appeal against a demolition order under section 343 goes to the Appellate Tribunal constituted under the Act, and must be filed within the period the order itself gives for demolition, which is between five and fifteen days. For stop-work orders, alteration notices and sealing orders, section 347B allows thirty days from the date of the order or notice, and the Tribunal may admit a late appeal if it is satisfied there was sufficient cause. The Tribunal can stay a demolition order on terms; if the building is unfinished, it will not grant a stay unless the owner gives security for not continuing the work. Section 343 also bars the civil courts from granting an injunction against the Commissioner's action under it, which is why the Tribunal is the forum. If no appeal is filed and the owner does not comply, the Commissioner can carry out the demolition and recover the cost from the owner as an arrear of tax. All of this is for your advocate to run; the point for an owner is that the clock starts on the day the order is delivered, and a fortnight spent hoping it goes away is the whole appeal period.

What Happens When a Property Is Sealed?

Sealing closes the unauthorised construction, or the premises in which it stands, so that its nature and extent cannot be disputed later and the work cannot continue. Under section 345A a seal can lawfully be removed only by an order of the Commissioner, made for the purpose of demolishing the unauthorised work, or by an order of the Appellate Tribunal or the Administrator in an appeal. The Act is blunt about it: 'No person shall remove such seal' in any other way, so breaking a seal to carry on using the premises is not a shortcut. Both lawful routes turn on what is being done about the deviation itself, which is why the next question matters more than any other.

What Can Be Regularised Under Delhi's Building Bye-Laws?

Clause 2.8 of the Unified Building Bye-Laws for Delhi 2016 says that a building or part of it constructed without sanction can be regularised 'if the same is within the ambit of BBL and MPD provisions' by paying the fees and charges in Annexures III and IV. The test is whether the construction would have been sanctioned had you applied. Annexure IV lists what is compoundable. Excess ground coverage or FAR can be compounded up to 5 percent of what is permissible, subject to a maximum of 13.5 sqm, at the time the completion certificate is considered. A setback infringement can be compounded up to a maximum of 0.3 m. Construction carried out without a building permit, which otherwise conforms to the bye-laws and the Master Plan, is compounded at a rate per sqm of covered area; the annexure lists ₹50 per sqm for residential buildings on plots up to 500 sqm and ₹2,000 per sqm for commercial buildings, plus a pre-occupancy charge of ₹25,000 per dwelling unit where a plotted house was occupied without an occupancy certificate. Other dimensional deviations can be compounded up to 10 percent of the prescribed limit, with no penalty on the first 3 percent unless the deviation exceeds it. The annexure also says that all fees and charges are 'to be decided by Sanctioning Authority as notified from time to time', so treat these as the framework and get the current figures from the MCD building department through your architect.

What Can Never Be Regularised?

Annexure IV lists the non-compoundable items, and they are the ones that matter most this month: deviations from the prescribed limits on the number of floors, the number of dwelling units and density, parking norms, light and ventilation provisions, use of the premises, and the staircase. The annexure says such deviations 'shall have to be rectified by altering/demolition at the risk and cost of owner'. Clause 2.9.2 adds that for unauthorised development beyond the compoundable limits the authority's action 'may include demolition of unauthorized works, sealing of premises, prosecution and criminal proceeding against the offender'. In practical terms: a fifth floor on a plot entitled to four, a stilt enclosed into a shop or a flat so that the parking is gone, a floor divided into more units than the plot size allows, a habitable room built where the bye-laws require a ventilation shaft, and a staircase narrowed or removed are not fee questions. Our guides to stilt plus four floors and to what you can build on a 100, 150 or 200 gaj plot set out the limits on floors, height and dwelling units that the annexure refers to.

Which Works Need No Permit at All?

Some notices are issued against work that never needed a permit, and knowing the list helps your architect answer them. Clause 2.0.1(d) of the bye-laws says no notice or building permit is required for additions and alterations that do not violate the provisions on building requirements, structural stability and fire safety and do not change the built-up area, and it lists them: plastering, cladding and patch repairs; re-roofing at the same height; flooring; opening and closing windows, ventilators and doors within your own plot; repair of fallen bricks, stones, pillars and beams; a sunshade up to 75 cm wide within your own land; parapets and permissible boundary walls; whitewashing, painting and false ceilings; internal partitions within the bye-laws; and lifts in existing low-rise plotted houses. Renovation that stays inside that list is lawful without a permit. Renovation that adds area, adds a floor, changes the use or touches the structure is not, and the MCD approval process applies.

What Should You Do in the First Week?

Read the section number and the date, and work out the last date for a reply or an appeal. Stop any work in progress; continuing after a section 344 order invites the police and the seizure of your materials. Do not touch a seal. Pull together the sanctioned plan, the completion or occupancy certificate if there is one, the title documents and the house-tax record. Have an architect prepare a measured drawing of what actually stands and overlay it on the sanctioned plan, so that every deviation is identified and sorted into three piles: needs no permit, compoundable, and non-compoundable. Then decide with your advocate and architect: apply for regularisation of what qualifies, give an undertaking and a programme to remove what does not, or appeal if the notice is wrong on the facts. A measured drawing and a programme give the building department something it can decide on; an argument does not.

How Is the Rectification Work Done?

Removing part of a building is structural work, not just breaking. An upper floor has to come down from the top in sequence, with the slab below protected and propped, the debris lowered and not thrown, and the terrace waterproofed again over what is now the roof. Reopening an enclosed stilt means removing walls without touching columns, and checking whether anyone cut or notched a column when the enclosure was built. Restoring a staircase or a shaft may need new structural members designed by an engineer. If the building has been carrying an extra floor for years, a structural audit of what remains is sensible before the finishes go back. Debris has to go to an authorised collection point; our demolition guide covers the malba rules. One timing conflict to raise early with your advocate: under GRAP Stage III all demolition work stops across the NCR, so a rectification programme agreed in October may not be executable in late November; our GRAP guide has last winter's dates.

What Does It Cost?

The compounding fees are the authority's, at the rates it has notified. The building work is priced after a site visit, because taking down a terrace room and taking down a fifth floor are different jobs. Where rectification is combined with putting the rest of the house right, our published renovation rates of ₹800 to ₹3,000 per sqft apply to the renovated area, and where the honest answer is that the old building is not worth rectifying, a new house to a sanctioned plan starts from ₹1,500 per sqft at our house construction packages.

Nirman Ved carries out rectification, partial demolition, structural repair and rebuilding for owners across Delhi NCR, working to your architect's drawings and the undertaking you have given the authority, and we build new houses only to sanctioned plans. We do not draft legal replies or appear before the Tribunal; that is your advocate's work. To have the building side assessed and priced, call +91-7838355055 or book a free site visit.