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The Bombay High Court on Monday dissatisfied with the interference of a member of the state legislature in carrying out its orders, and rescinded a notice by the Pest Control Officer (PCO) of BMC, who had allegedly stopped the demolition of slums in Jogeshwari (East). ) which the court allowed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority to remove.
The court opposed the authorities’ “invention” of their attempts to halt the demolition, after they complained that the challenged notice had been issued by the Counter-Terrorism Office at the request of the MLC.
We will not allow the orders of this court to be interfered with by anyone, whether it be the Legal Aid Act or any other political entity. The jurisdiction of this court goes beyond that of mutual legal assistance. The Council indicated that any attempt to interfere with the implementation of the orders of this court will be considered an interference with the administration of justice and will be dealt with accordingly.
The petitioner referred to a letter dated 16 December 2022 written by Praveen Dharkar of BJP MLC to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, requesting the formation of a special investigation team to investigate BGB employees, who according to Dharekar assisted the company in losing its rights over reserved land.
Dharekar also claimed, as per the representation of the original owners of the land offered to him, that the demolition of the slums was not carried out in accordance with “due process” and also indicated that there were irregularities in the project in question.
The petition alleged that a competing development company was using political interference to derail the project at any cost.
Division Judge Gautam S Patel and Justice Neela K Gokhale were hearing an appeal from Gyan SP Developers LLP seeking to set aside the PCO’s application/notice.
Senior Attorney S. Kamdar and Advocates Chirag Balsara and Sarosh Bharucha claim that their client is redeveloping and implementing a slum rehabilitation scheme in the concerned property in Shukla Nagar (Vijay Nagar), Bandrikar Valley district. Residents of the slums of the aforementioned property have been asked to vacate and surrender their buildings for possession to enable demolition and redevelopment work. However, the “uncooperative” slum dwellers refused to do so, prompting the developer to file lawsuits against them.
The petitioner said that several authorities including the Apex Grievance Redress Committee (AGRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had rejected the slum dwellers’ appeals and refused to stop the demolition.
Despite this, the demolition scheduled for June 16 was not possible due to political interference, the petitioner alleged. On 20 June, the Human Rights Commission appointed a receiver to ensure the demolition of the slums in question, after which 11 structures were demolished on 21 June. Tahsildar 1 (Special Class), SRA has commenced demolition procedures.
However, on 1 July, the petitioner received two rejected notices by the PCO of BMC stating that the accumulation of unwanted water at the construction site would likely lead to mosquito breeding and debris generation in the area resulting in potential breeding grounds for rats and rodents. However, the petitioner denied the allegations and claimed that the notifications were “unsubstantiated”.
The arbitrator commented, “The work of the Authority (PCO) should be commended for sheer ingenuity. After every attempt to stop the demolition of squatter buildings has failed, the final opposition comes in the form of a notice from all entities, Pest Control Officer, K/East Ward of BMC, says demolition cannot to continue. There is also a reference to a letter from the Legal Aid Act stating that the project should not proceed.”
The seat overturned the PCO’s notice and ordered the site to be evacuated and the slum structures removed. It also requested the Jogeshwari Police Station to deploy sufficient personnel to the site to assist the South Sudanese Army.
The court inserted the compliance request on July 5.
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