Pay ₹28.38L for using Byculla building as quarantine facility: HC to BMC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will have to pay ₹28.38 lakh per month for using a newly constructed building at Byculla to use as a quarantine facility

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will have to pay ₹28.38 lakh per month for using a newly constructed building at Byculla to use as a quarantine facility to keep about 950 high-risk Covid-19 contacts from E ward.

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The Bombay high court on Friday allowed the civic body to continue to use the building constructed by Neelkamal Realtors Tower, but subjected it to the condition that the civic body pay transit rent to 218 residentiary and commercial tenants who are to be accommodated in the building.

The bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice NR Borkar said BMC will have to pay transit rent to the tenants from April 24, 2020, the date on which it took over the building. It further ordered it to clear the arrears in 15 days and start paying regular monthly rent from June 24.

The court allowed use of the private building for quarantine purposes in view of the fact that majority of the tenants had not objected to or challenged the requisition of the building. Only nine tenants, who had filed an intervention application through advocate Vivek Shukla for payment of their transit rent, had raised objection.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Neelkamal Realtors Tower challenging validity of a clause of the Maharashtra Covid-19 Regulations, 2020 that empowered the revenue and civic authorities to requisition private buildings. The developer also questioned BMC’s decision to take over a building constructed by them as part of the rehabilitation project at Byculla.

BMC had responded to the petition contending that increasing number of Covid-19 patients as well as high-risk contacts in E ward, coupled with lack of appropriate constructed space for quarantine purposes, compelled the civic body to requisition the building.

According to senior advocate Anil Sakhare, representing the civic body, about 975 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in E Ward and 2,699 are at high risk and they required to be quarantined. BMC has converted 234 flats in the building into a quarantine facility with a capacity of 1,000 beds, of which about 950 were occupied.