Raze illegal Navi Mumbai building in 8 weeks, can't pay and regularise: Bombay high court | Mumbai News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India
Author: Swati Deshpande

MUMBAI: Holding that an entire residential building had come up illegally on Cidco land, Bombay High Court directed Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NNMC) to demolish the structure within eight weeks, with six weeks given to its 23 residents to vacate. HC directed NMMC and Cidco to take immediate steps to have the building evacuated.

Regularisation of wholly illegal buildings cannot be allowed as a matter of course by imposing fines or taking compensation, ruled Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata in their judgment uploaded on Tuesday."The individual right has to be balanced with the requirements of society. Private interest must be suborned to the public good." No stay can be granted, said HC.

Last year, HC had turned a petition into a suo motu matter. It had asked NMMC how it was providing municipal water supply to a building which it said is unauthorised and was demolished four times in its early iterations.

Such "rampant illegality" cannot be permitted, it said and directed Cidco and NMMC to urgently take up the matter of formulating a working policy and scheme to protect all their lands. The scheme must include fencing and signboards as some people had simply walked in and started construction, judges noted.

Several persons claimed they were in legitimate possession of the land and HC noted "apparently acquired such titles as Patils or Patel (or both) offered to them". HC said their rights stem from illegality and cannot be protected. They have remedies against the builder. HC said the structure was built by one Ishwar Patel.

"The problem as we noted at the outset is not localised. Every municipal corporation faces it. Sometimes it is only a matter of degree," HC added.

Advocate Rohit Sakhadeo for Cidco said it has never been at fault in this matter. That is correct, said HC. For NMMC, advocate Tejesh Dande said "the corporation has a zero tolerance policy". Dande said NMMC is using digital technology with drones and radar and has mapped almost 80% of all constructions in its command areas. Once mapping is over, it will accurately monitor all development, said NMMC. HC heard senior counsel Sharan Jagtiani, appointed as amicus curiae (friend of court), "owner" Patils' counsel, Khushnood Akhtar for the builder, R D Soni for residents and P P Kakade for the state.

HC said, "Digital real-time maps can easily detect these constructions preventing ambiguity and even third-party hardships". HC repelled residents' plea that with TDR sourced from elsewhere the building could be regularised.

The builder, a sixth pass and former grocery shop delivery man, said it was his first project. HC hoped it would be "his last of this variety". His affidavit could be a script a la "Slumdog Millionaire". His is a fantastic story of a man who comes to the city of dreams, his imagination fuelled by ambition. Unfortunately in this case it translated into something else altogether, HC said.