HC restrains BMC from demolishing Bandra building

Some residents of the building moved to the high court after the civic authorities issued the order on June 13, 2022, for the demolition of the entire building, stating that it was illegal and dilapidated. The next day, the order was stuck on the building premises, saying that the structure was illegal as no documents were received according to the notice issued on May 25, 2022, under section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday restrained the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from demolishing Marian Terrace, a ground-plus-two-storey building at Chapel Road in Bandra West, or any part of it. The civic body had ‘assumed’ the building to be illegal as it did not have any record of the building.

Marian Terrace building was ‘assumed’ illegal, as BMC did not have any of its record at Chaple Road in Bandra west. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

“The entire submission seems to be that the MCGM (BMC) does not have records or is remiss in its own record keeping, therefore, there is an assumption that the structure is illegal and unauthorised and must be pulled down,” said a division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Kamal Khata while staying the June 2022 order by BMC issued to demolish the building.

“This is some strange notion of the burden of proof,” the bench said, adding that by “this bizarre reasoning,” the entire high court building, the (Mumbai) University building, the Institute of Science, the CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) museum, the CSM (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) terminus and Churchgate stations will all be unauthorised and liable to be pulled down — simply because the MCGM has no records of permissions for these buildings.

Some residents of the building moved to the high court after the civic authorities issued the order on June 13, 2022, for the demolition of the entire building, stating that it was illegal and dilapidated. The next day, the order was stuck on the building premises, saying that the structure was illegal as no documents were received according to the notice issued on May 25, 2022, under section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.

The petitioners pointed out that in April 1993, the then deputy municipal commissioner for Zone III had issued a notice to the building owners under section 351 regarding some unauthorised construction in the rear portion of the building and the orders issued by the civic authorities were complied with at the time and subsequently the notice under section 351 was dropped, and therefore fresh notice could not have been issued for the entire building again.

The civic body responded to the petition first, claiming that the April 1993 notice was issued to some other building, but after the judges pointed out that the notice was for the same building, Marian Terrace, the corporation took a stand that they do not have any record of the April 1993 proceedings or otherwise of the building.

The court, however, refused to accept the argument and stayed the demolition order, observing that the “Section 351 notice proceeded on the assumption that the whole structure was unauthorised.”