Can't allow unauthorised buildings to take even one innocent life, says HC

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it will not allow unauthorised buildings to take the life of even one innocent person while taking a serious note of the dangers posed by such structuresA bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik was hearing a petition filed by three residents from neighbouring Thane who had sought the demolition of nine unauthorised buildings in Mumbra that were being inhabited by several families to avoid any untoward incident or loss of lifeThe bench asked the state government why a 1998 government resolution which was still being implemented restrained civic authorities from demolishing unauthorised structures during the monsoon seasonIs demolishing an unauthorised building riskier during the rains What is the logic behind the GR the court askedThe petitioners one of whom is a state witness in the 2013 Lucky Compound building collapse in which 76 people were killed approached the court through advocate Neeta KarnikOn Thursday Karnik told the court that though the Thane Municipal Corporation TMC had served several demolition notices to the unauthorised structures and had even cut off power and water supply residents continued to live there and had even managed to access power and water through illegal channelsThe TMCs counsel Ram Apte confirmed that the civic body had sent several demolition notices to the nine buildings but residents had refused to vacateKarnik said that the buildings in question were dilapidated and unfit for inhabitationAdvocate Suhas Oak who appeared for the residents of the said buildings urged the court to take a humanitarian view and stop the TMC from demolishing the buildings at least till the end of monsoon seasonTo this the court said We are on humanitarian ground already as we want you to live One building that collapses might take with it several lives and also bring down neighbouring buildingsWe will not allow an unauthorised building to take the life of even one innocent person the high court saidIn December 2021 the court had passed a detailed order in a suo motu on its own PIL asking the Maharashtra government to demolish all unauthorised buildings on public land across the stateYour clients should have been aware of it the order What is the purpose of us passing 150 pages long orders otherwise the court saidThe bench then directed that the seniormost member of each family residing in these nine buildings must give an undertaking by this evening stating that all residents will vacate the structures by August 31Oak argued that the subject of the petition was only nine buildings At least 90 per cent of buildings in Mumbra are unauthorised In such a case the government needs to devise a uniform policy he saidThe high court however said that while a policy should come into force one couldnt say that in the meantime let unauthorised development continueThe bench in an oral direction said that the TMC can refrain from carrying out the demolition action against the nine buildings till August 31This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever