HC raps MMRDA for harassing shop owner

The Bombay High Court criticized MMRDA for harassing shopkeeper Shafiullah Khan over delays in providing alternate premises after his shop was acquired for Metro Rail-6.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court last week called out the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for mentally harassing a Mumbai-based shopkeeper affected by the 15.31-km Mumbai Metro Rail - 6 project, which runs from Swami Samarth Nagar to Vikhroli.

HC raps MMRDA for harassing shop owner

Shafiullah Khan ran a fabrication shop in Adarsh Nagar, Jogeshwari, for more than 20 years. The plea stated that the site of the shop was acquired by the MMRDA for construction of the 15.31 km-long Mumbai Metro Railway - 6.

Khan alleged that he was asked by the MMRDA to submit documents to decide his eligibility for permanent alternate commercial premises in November 2019. But it was only in September 2022 that Khan was allotted premises in Goregaon and was given a possession receipt for the same, the plea claimed. It stated that, however, a MMRDA surveyor took Khan’s signatures on the receipt without handing over possession of the new shop to him. It further alleged that when he visited the site of his allotted shop in Goregaon, Khan found that the possession of the shop was given to some other person. He then requested the deputy collector, MMRDA, to allot some other shop to him. He also wrote to the commissioner, MMRDA, in September 2022 stating his grievance and requested him for either the possession of the shop allotted to him or another shop in lieu of the former, but no actions were taken on the same, prompting him to approach the high court.

“We are at a loss to appreciate a situation that when the said shop no 102 (in Goregaon) was already allotted to some other person on 23 November 2021, what prompted the deputy collector of respondent (MMRDA) to allot the same shop/gala No 102 to the petitioner by its communication dated 12 September 2022,” the court said. “The said lackadaisical and improper approach of deputy collector of respondent has not only caused mental agony and harassment to the Petitioner (Khan), who is citizen of India, but has also compelled him to invoke jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the constitution,” the court said, while passing an order.

It also directed the joint metropolitan commissioner, Mumbai Region, MMRDA, to file a reply to Shafiullah’s plea.