In a statement hours after a five-storey building collapsed in northeast Delhi’s Seemapuri on Wednesday, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) claimed that the structure was 20-25 years old, a claim contested by the victims and people living in the neighbourhood.
On April 7, 2026, the central government also announced the regularisation of 1,511 unauthorised colonies in Delhi on an ‘as-is-where-is’ basis, with an estimated population of 4.5 million.
“Most of these buildings don’t conform to building byelaws, but the as-is-where-is provision leaves the vulnerable structures open for regularisation,” an official added.
At the time, it was argued that this would give government agencies time to finalise norms and come up with feasible strategies to implement Delhi’s Master Plan. The scale of unauthorised construction and other violations was so large that the government enacted a law to grant a temporary, one-year reprieve. “Most of the urban villages, abadi areas, resettlement colonies, unplanned trans-Yamuna areas and even Old Delhi have buildings with illegalities and no sanctioned building plans. In unauthorised colonies, even seven- and eight-storey buildings have been constructed, but a large chunk of these are protected under one provision or another. No government has found it electorally conducive to take tough steps,” the official added. Each successive government responded with regularisation schemes, amnesty provisions and special laws that allowed these settlements to maintain status quo without addressing the underlying shortage of planned housing and commercial space.
Under the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act passed by Parliament, unauthorised structures built before June 2014 are protected from punitive action, including demolition and sealing. The regulatory shield dates back to February 2006, when the MCD launched a city-wide sealing drive following court orders.
A senior MCD official dealing with building regulations said preparations for another extension have already started among the urban local bodies. Former MCD works committee chairman Jagdish Mamgain said the law had created a mess of its own.
