HC says its authority above political entity, quashes BMC order stalling demolition
The bench quashed the PCO's notice and ordered clearance of site and removal of slum structures. It also asked the Jogeshwari Police station to deploy a sufficient number of personnel on the site to assist the SRA.
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The court remarked against the "inventiveness" of authorities for attempts to stall the demolition, after it was complained that the PCO had issued the impugned notice at the behest of the MLC. (Representational Image) Expressing displeasure over interference by member of the state legislature in the execution of its orders, the Bombay High Court on Monday quashed a notice by the Pest Control Officer (PCO) of the BMC, which allegedly stalled the demolition of slum structures in Jogeshwari (East) which the court had allowed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to remove.
The court remarked against the “inventiveness” of authorities for attempts to stall the demolition, after it was complained that the PCO had issued the impugned notice at the behest of the MLC.
“We will not permit interference with orders of this court by anyone, whether MLA or any other political entity. The authority of this court runs above that of MLAs. Any attempt to interfere with implementation of orders of this court will be seen as interference with the administration of justice and will be dealt with accordingly,” the bench noted.
The petitioner referred to a December 16, 2022 letter written by BJP MLC Pravin Darekar to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking constitution of Special Investigation Team to probe BMC employees, who according to Darekar aided in corporation losing rights over its reserved land.
Darekar, as per representation by original owners of the land made to him, also claimed the demolition of slum structures was not undertaken as per “due process of law” and also pointed out irregularities in the project in question.
The plea claimed a rival developer was using political interference to stall the project at any cost.
A division bench of Justice Gautam S Patel and Justice Neela K Gokhale was hearing a plea by Gyan SP Developers LLP seeking quashing of PCO’s order/notice.
Senior advocate S U Kamdar and advocates Chirag Balsara and Sarosh Bharucha for the petitioner informed the court that their client is redeveloping and implementing slum rehabilitation scheme at the subject property in Shukla Nagar (Vijay Nagar), Bandrekar Wadi area. The slum dwellers on the said property were asked to vacate their structures and handover possession of the same to enable demolition and redevelopment work. However, the “non-cooperative” slum dwellers refused to do so, prompting the developer to initiate proceedings against them.
The petitioner said that various authorities including Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC) and HC had rejected slum dwellers’ pleas and had refused to stay the demolition process.
Despite this, the demolition scheduled on June 16 could not take place due to political interference, the petitioner claimed. On June 20, the HC appointed a court receiver to ensure the slum structures in question were demolished, following which 11 structures were demolished on June 21. The AGRC on June 27 rejected an appeal by 18 other slum-dwellers against demolition, after which the Tahsildar 1 (Special Class), SRA had initiated demolition procedure.
However, on July 1, petitioner received two impugned notices by PCO of BMC which stated that accumulation of unwanted water at the construction site is likely to breed mosquitoes and generation of debris in the area leads to probability of breeding spaces for rats and rodents. However, the petitioner denied the allegations and claimed the notices to be ‘baseless.”
The bench remarked, “The action of the authority (PCO) has to be commended for sheer inventiveness. After every attempt to stall demolition of the slum structures failed, the latest opposition comes in the form of a notice from, of all entities, the Pest Control Officer, K/East Ward of the BMC, saying that the demolition cannot proceed. There is also a reference to a letter of an MLA saying that the project should not proceed.”
The bench quashed the PCO’s notice and ordered clearance of site and removal of slum structures. It also asked the Jogeshwari Police station to deploy a sufficient number of personnel on the site to assist the SRA.
The court listed the plea for compliance on July 5.
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