MCD’s Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta said de-sealing would begin on Wednesday and be completed in the next four days.

The MCD’s move comes after Court-appointed Monitoring Committee wrote to the MCD on Tuesday asking it not to go ahead with the de-sealing.

Gupta, however, said the civic body has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that it would de-seal properties as per the instructions contained in the January 30 notice of the Union Urban Development Ministry. He said MCD Commissioner Ashok Nigam has been given clear instructions to this effect.

“We have set aside the letter of the Monitoring Committee and would go by the January 30 notice, even though the notice is very limited in scope,” Gupta said.

The properties to be desealed include 3,500 shops in village abadi areas and their extensions, 70 per cent of which come under the DDA.

On Tuesday evening, MCD, DDA and Delhi Police officials held a meeting with members of the monitoring panel at the India Habitat Centre. They, however, refused to divulge details about the meeting.

Even if de-sealing commences, there would be no relief for properties falling outside Section 3 of the 2007 Act. The January 30 notice had made it clear that properties violating the Delhi Masterplan 2021 would continue to be sealed.

People living on fourth and fifth floors or those living on floors exceeding a height of 15 metres are unlikely to get relief by the January 30 notice.