HC orders inspection of residential towers taken over by TMC for quarantine facility

The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday appointed a senior court official to inspect a newly constructed residential complex at Shil, after purchasers of flats in the

The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday appointed a senior court official to inspect a newly constructed residential complex at Shil, after purchasers of flats in the complex, objected to the Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) plans to take over two high-rise towers in the complex and convert them into a quarantine facility.

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Over a hundred flat purchasers in the complex, who wanted to move in their respective premises, had clashed with civic authorities on June 2, when the officials visited the residential complex for a survey for setting up quarantine facility in some of the towers.

A bench of justice Ujjal Bhuyan and justice Riyaz Chagla has directed judicial registrar of HC to visit My City Complex at Shil - between Mumbra and Dombivli, and submit a report to the court in seven days.

The bench has asked the judicial registrar to examine all the buildings in the complex and disclose in his report whether any of the buildings are occupied or not.

The order came to be passed on a petition filed by five flat purchasers in My City Complex, having ten 24-storey towers. They have strongly opposed the move of the civic body to take over two 24-storey buildings for setting up quarantine facility for high-risk Covid-19 contacts.

The bench ordered the senior court official to visit the site and submit a report, as the petitioners maintained that some of the flats in the buildings were occupied, whereas the civic body asserted that the buildings were not yet occupied.

Senior advocate Ram Apte, who represented TMC, claimed that the occupation certification for the buildings was granted on March 9, a fortnight before imposition of the nationwide lockdown, therefore the towers could not have been occupied.

The court has posted the petition for further hearing on July 7, and directed TMC to maintain status quo till then.