Prabhadevi project: NGT puts SRA on notice, seeks reply

Listing down the alleged violations by SRA, the application said the authority flouted the 2006 Environment Impact Assessment notification. In addition, the affidavit said, “No permission was taken from the BMC to construct the building pertaining to CRZ notifications of 1991 and 2011. The Floor-Space Index consumed was in excess of 2.5, even though a maximum of only 1.6 could be consumed at the site.”

The height of the building exceeded the maximum permissible limit of 1.5 times the width of the road and the front open space, alleged Daundkar in his application.

Pratap told the tribunal that the application was served to the SRA, and the tribunal had issued notice on March 24, asking it to file its reply by April 24. “Yet the SRA chose to stay silent and did not file any affidavit in reply. Instead, the authority surreptitiously granted OC to the developer even though the building was far from completion. This OC was granted on May 16, without informing the tribunal or the applicant,” he claimed.

The lawyer argued that all this was done by the SRA to help create a situation where flats would be rendered for occupancy without any due regard for the violations of law.

While asking SRA to file its reply by November 20, Justice V R Kingaonkar and Dr Ajay A Deshpande said, “Call upon respondent number six (SRA) to explain under what circumstances he issued OC in question, in spite of service of notice of this application, and why penal action under Section 26 of the NGT Act, 2010, not be taken in case it was found that he had intentionally issued OC or flouted any direction of this tribunal or that had committed any fraudulent act, as the case may be.”

SRA officials were unavailable for comments.
aamir.khan@expressindia.com