Bombay HC Raps BMC on ‘Keep a Distance from Builders’.

Tenants of the former Janki Bhuvan, which was taken up for redevelopment by Sanghavi Grih Nirman Pvt Ltd in 2009 but was never completed, filed a high court petition.

MUMBAI: After seeking permission to evict tenants and demolish a temporary transit building in Prabhadevi, the Bombay High Court warned the BMC to avoid builders. On September 29, Justices Gautam Patel and Gauri Godse denied the BMC’s application to vacate the May 25, 2018 order restoring water and electricity to the transit building.

Tenants of the former Janki Bhuvan, which was taken over by Sanghavi Grih Nirman Pvt Ltd for redevelopment in 2009 but was never completed, filed a high court petition. The BMC had turned off the water and power. They agreed to stay at their own risk.

According to the judges, no one requested that the May 2018 order be vacated until 2021. “We were astounded that BMC, rather than the developer, came forward.” It did not mention about where the 42 tenants might live.”It is believed that they will be dropped on city streets and left to fend for themselves,” the judges said.

They also stated that BMC has “enough power and authority to take action against the developer and compel it to complete the project,” but did not specify whether or not this has occurred. A tenant’s advocate, Anand Mishra, disputed BMC’s claim that a transit building has a five-year lifespan.

According to the judges, the transit building “is a relatively recent structure, from 2009 or so.”The building is dilapidated “again and again,” according to BMC’s advocate. The judges stated that “we have yet to see this level of enthusiasm in litigation” from BMC in regard to older and more dilapidated buildings.

According to the judges, the benefit of an order is not to the tenants, who would clearly be harmed, or to the BMC, but to the developer, who receives a “bonanza” of a wholly emptied plot. They noticed that the developer did not communicate when the project would be finished or when the tenants would be relocated to permanent housing.