After 24 years, shanties to make way for road construction

The Bombay high court on Thursday cleared the way for a 60-feet DP (Development Plan) road in Everard Nagar in Sion, which had been held up for around 24 years due to an illegal nexus between slumlords, local corporator and municipal officers

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday cleared the way for a 60-feet DP (Development Plan) road in Everard Nagar in Sion, which had been held up for around 24 years due to an illegal nexus between slumlords, local corporator and municipal officers.

The court referred to the slum dwellers plea as “an attempt by squatters and land grabbers to prolong their unlawful occupation”. (Raju Shinde/Hindustan Times)

While holding the assistant municipal commissioner of the ward guilty of contempt of court, a division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Kamal Khata on Thursday ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to remove the remaining shanties that had encroached upon the land acquired for the DP road and expeditiously complete the road work.

The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by Everard Society against Ajit Ambi, assistant municipal commissioner of the ward, and others. The plea arose from an order passed in 2015 in a batch of petitions filed by the housing society and five of the 52 slum dwellers, who had encroached upon the area earmarked for the road, challenging their eviction on the grounds that the BMC had declared them eligible to be rehabilitated.

The plea filed by the five slum dwellers was opposed by Everard Society, a housing society in Sion, on the grounds that the occupation of the 60-feet DP road to the south of the residential complex was illegal.

In the first phase of the society’s construction, the society was told to surrender a 30 feet wide patch of land on its south for the construction of a proposed 60-feet development plan road. The society alleged that around March 2000, the patch was acquired for the DP road, but soon, thereafter, the acquired land was encroached upon by slumlords and while the BMC did not act on complaints lodged by the society against the encroachers, the civic body constructed a public toilet for the benefit of the slum dwellers.

In June 2015, the BMC was given six months by the high court to demolish the illegal hutments and the toilet block. However, no action was taken by the corporation. Also, the BMC did not respond to a 2016 right-to-information request on the status of the compliance with the court’s orders for nearly 11 months, after which the society was constrained to approach the high court again with a contempt petition.

The court on Thursday decided the contempt petition, expressing surprise as to how the squatters could be categorised as eligible slum dwellers by the corporation. The court further observed that the squatters failed to disclose how they came into possession of the structures or obtained water and electricity supplies.

The court referred to the slum dwellers plea as “an attempt by squatters and land grabbers to prolong their unlawful occupation”. Referring to a 1993 order passed by the high court in connection with slums in the city, the bench said, “The situation that prevailed in 1993 has worsened over the period of 30 years as the slums have grown manifold. These illegal occupants hold the law-abiding citizens to ransom.”

The court also held the ward officer of L ward, Ajit Kumar Ambi, guilty of contempt of court for flouting 2015 and later court orders for demolition of the shanties and asked the high court registrar to issue him summons to remain present before the bench with his reply on the quantum of punishment on January 27, when the court will take up the matter for further hearing.