Respond to issue of illegal structures on govt land: Bombay HC to state, KDMC

The Bombay high court (HC), in its attempts to highlight the loss of government land to unauthorised constructions, directed the state and the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to respond to a petitioner’s allegations that there had been an instance of land grabbing in the twin cities, but nothing was done to safeguard it

The Bombay high court (HC), in its attempts to highlight the loss of government land to unauthorised constructions, directed the state and the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to respond to a petitioner’s allegations that there had been an instance of land grabbing in the twin cities, but nothing was done to safeguard it. The court also pointed out that the illegal structures later get regularised, resulting in the state government having to give up the ownership of the property.

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In an earlier hearing in another related issue, HC had noted that such government land was being considered as the state’s “paternal property” and the practice of unauthorised constructions should be stopped.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Harishchandra Mhatre – right to information (RTI) activist and employee of Ambernath Municipal Corporation – was informed by advocate Shriram Kulkarni that a large number of middle class families in Dombivli were getting fleeced by developers who were constructing buildings illegally on state and KDMC-owned land.

The petitions stated that while Mhatre had been trying to highlight the issue by writing to various authorities since 2018, he had not received any responses and hence, he filed RTI queries pertaining to a few structures that had been constructed recently in Dombivli.

Mhatre stated that the replies to the RTI query were given to him only after he filed appeals. The responses showed that the corporation had issued notices to some of the developers and project owners, but beyond that nothing had been done to safeguard the interests of the middle class families who had purchased flats in the these residential buildings.

In light of these submissions, the petition sought directions to the corporation to conduct a survey of the alleged illegal/unauthorised structures and stay the constructions wherever they were on. The PIL also sought action against the officials concerned.

After hearing the submissions, the state – represented by government pleader PP Kakade and advocate Nisha Mehra – informed the bench that they had written to the civic authorities in January, seeking information pertaining to the allegations made in the PIL, but so far they had not received any instructions. The court was then informed that the corporation was not represented, though it was served a copy of the PIL.

“We note that the allegations as made in the petition, which are in regard to the unauthorised constructions on government and municipal corporation lands, as also some unauthorised construction on private lands, are quite serious,” said the bench and directed the respondents to file their replies and posted hearing of the PIL on July 29.

In an earlier hearing of a suo motu PIL initiated by HC in light of the building collapse in Bhiwandi, which resulted in the loss of nearly 40 lives last year, the bench had taken up the issue of the recent building collapse in Malwani, which saw 11 deaths. The court had appointed an inquiry commissioner, and after perusing its report, which stated that most of the structures were illegal and were on government owned land, had observed, “It seems that the state-owned land is considered as paternal property by the executive.”

The court took strict cognisance of the fact that as these unauthorised and illegal structures were provided protection under one or the other scheme, the land had to be written off, thus causing a loss to the state. The court had held that this needed to stop and had asked the state to consider setting up a separate body to oversee illegal constructions, especially those coming up on state or corporation-owned land.