‘Open racket…to perpetuate illegalities’: Bombay HC slams BMC officers over Dadar building redevelopment

A division bench of Justices Girish S Kulkarni and Kamal R Khata passed an order on July 18 on a batch of petitions by affected residents, who have been unable to occupy their redeveloped tenements at RK Building, situated at the Gokhale Road-Ranade Road junction.

The high court also constituted a special committee of Justice (retired) Gautam S Patel and senior advocate Naushad Engineer to make recommendations to the BMC commissioner on ward-wise “bulky” litigations and sought a report, preferably within four months. Four officers recommended by the commissioner will also be part of the panel.

The high court said that unless systematic steps were taken, Mumbai citizens “would continue to be the victims of such messy urban plight, civil disorder and chaos on every possible front like encroachments on public land, footpaths and pavements, illegal constructions, pollution, to name a few.”

“Disturbed” by the “unwarranted” litigation or court cases involving the BMC handled at significant public expense, the bench said that several issues could be resolved at the municipal administration level itself, without creating an “alarming” situation and unnecessarily burdening the judiciary. The court said that most such cases proliferate due to the BMC’s failure to respond to citizen complaints or applications and routine violations.

As per the Dadar residents’ pleas, they had vacated their homes in 2009. Redevelopment was stalled in 2014 after 10 floors were built, and they had subsequently approached the high court seeking completion of construction.

The bench expressed “very serious concerns” over “several illegalities” in the building, where ground-floor shops have been operating for nearly 12 years without BMC approval and occupation certificate, “with the complete blessings of municipal machinery”.

It remarked that officials acted “as if there are no rules and regulations”, failing to even issue notices to shops where hundreds visit for purchases or conduct inspections. It added that “the situation of illegality is aided and enabled by the municipal officers” by “turning blind eye”, resulting in a “total failure of the municipal governance”.

The bench went on to note that the BMC commissioner and his co-officers “deserve to have sleepless nights on such issues”, warning that “any neglect may lead to untoward incidents of collapse or of a fire affecting human lives”.

After perusing an affidavit filed by Vinayak Vispute, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, G/North Ward, the high court observed that he would not have coordinated with other departments had the court not intervened. The high court pulled him up for “classic example” of shifting the blame to the “building proposal department”.

The court went on to note, “Such attitudes and approach being openly canvassed by the Municipal Officers, have brought about a regime where majority illegality and irregularity has become a rule and legality is an exception in the routine administration as we experience day in and day out in municipal matters. We would in fact wonder whether a common man has any place in this system…”.

It questioned if municipal officers “can at all be called public servants” in the face of such “rampant state of affairs” and said “it was high time” that the BMC commissioner acted against such officers. The court remarked that the situation “depicts a ridicule and a mockery of the whole system” and a “colossal derailment” of effective and responsible municipal machinery.

“Such a lawless regime cannot continue to subsist… Something is drastically wrong in the functioning of the corporation and its high ranking officials not taking into consideration all these repercussions and such massive litigation being faced and defended at huge public cost and/or tax payers money,” the high court noted and posted the matter for further hearing on August 1.