Chandigarh, Dec. 25 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday stayed implementation of new provisions added to urban area building bylaws, including contentious 'stilt-plus-four floors', by the Punjab government. The high court bench of justice Gurvinder Singh acted on a petition from 93- year-old, Harbinder Singh Sekhon and 61-year-old, Jasinder Sekhon, both from Sangrur, who had challenged December 15 notification of the Punjab Unified Building Rules-2025 issued by the department of housing and urban development. They had claimed that notification is inconsistent with existing rules/laws, including the Punjab Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act, 2004 as well as National Building Code of India, 2016. In the December 15 notification, construction norms were liberalised and floor area ratio was enhanced. It allowed stilt-plus-four floors in all new residential areas coming up in urban areas across the state. Also, it allowed plots measuring up to 200 sq yards on roads having a minimum width of 30 feet and plots above 200 sq yards were allowed on the minimum road width of 40 feet. ".implementation of these rules will lead to chaos and avoidable densification of residential areas. The residents of the area have not been taken into confidence while framing these rules," senior advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains and Shehbaz Thind had told the court. It was also alleged that these rules have been framed pursuant to the constitution of real estate advisory committee, which mainly comprises private developers, colonisers and promoters, who have "vested business interests and have, thus, ignored the public interest". "..the government even proceeds to allow construction to the extent of stilt-plus-four floors on those residential plots, which are situated alongside 40 feet wide road and also in some cases permitted ground coverage to the extent of 100% for commercial buildings in core area and has also extended option to the owners of the plots abutting 60 feet or above to opt for construction, which would lead to haphazard raising of buildings," Bains had told the court. It was demanded that the government be directed to conduct a thorough review and upgrade of Punjab's existing infrastructure, including the augmentation of water supply system, sewage treatment capacity, fire safety measures and road networks, before allowing any further increase in population density in the core urban areas of the state. The petition alleged that the new rules would lead to unregulated commercialization of residential streets, dilution of fire safety requirements and introduction of an "unprecedented self-certification regime without statutory basis". "These drastic changes have been introduced without amending the parent statues, without conducting any environmental or infrastructural assessment and in complete disregard of the ground realities prevailing all over Punjab," the petition said, adding that the government move amounts to an "impermissible attempt" to impose a uniform statewide building code across all municipal jurisdictions, overriding mandate of various laws, which are in place....