Panaji: The Bombay high court has imposed costs of Rs 5,000 personally on the secretary of the village panchayat of Camurlim for his inaction and “recalcitrant attitude” in implementing its orders to demolish an illegal structure.The high court in Nov 2025 had directed the panchayat to carry out and complete demolition of a structure and implement its demolition order of Nov 2020 within two months.The court now observed that despite its Nov 2025 order, the panchayat secretary chose to file two affidavits in Jan and then in Feb taking a stand that after inspection of the site there was no plinth structure seen below debris at site and that the demolition was complete in all respects.The high court was then forced to appoint a court commissioner to inspect the site and present a report. The report disclosed that an entire plinth was seen below debris which forms part of the original offending structure and had not been removed. The court has now observed that the entire structure has been removed. Advocate Ajay Menon, representing the petitioner, pressed for costs to be paid by the panchayat secretary for the delay in carrying out and completing the demolition of the structure.For almost one year, the high court was forced to take action for recovery of demolition costs which are still pending before mamlatdar of Bardez, which has added to unnecessary litigation due to the inaction of the secretary, the court observed.“As a result, this petition has remained pending from Sept 25, 2025, when the first order was passed, till today, when the action taken by the director of panchayats has been placed before us. Considering that the delay in disposing this petition by the court is entirely due to the recalcitrant attitude of Rajesh Assolkar, secretary, village panchayat, Camurlim, we deem it appropriate to impose costs on him in the amount of Rs. 5,000, which shall be paid by him to the petitioner by way of depositing in the registry of this court within a week from today,” stated the division bench of justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar.The high court directed the director of panchayats to record the costs imposed on the warning memo the DoP had issued to him in July. The DoP had issued a warning memo to him after the high court had directed the DoP to initiate action against him for not completing work of demolition after its directions. The high court observed that the DoP had taken note of the conduct of Assolkar and after considering his reply, chose to take a lenient view of the matter and imposed a warning.
