HC says unlawful slum occupants maintain legislation abiding residents to ransom, holds BMC officer responsible of contempt | Mumbai Information

The HC directed the petitioner slum dwellers to pay a price of Rs 5 lakh to the Everard Society inside 4 weeks.

Furthermore, it held Ajit Kumar Ambi, Assistant Commissioner of ‘L’ ward of Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC) responsible for disobeying the court docket orders. It directed him to look earlier than the court docket on January 27 to submit his reply on the quantum of sentence to be imposed on him.

The court docket additional vacated the keep on removing and directed the BMC to finish demolition of mentioned buildings and likewise directed its Commissioner to file an affidavit outlining who the others have been answerable for the inaction, and what motion had been taken or proposed to be taken towards them.

“This petition exposes how the overburdened courts and their leniency in the direction of authorities is systematically exploited and manipulated by slumlords, in collusion with the Municipal corporators accountable for governance, the BMC and the Police,” a bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Kamal R Khata famous of their January 2 verdict.

It famous that 52 slum dwellers had since March, 2000 illegally constructed and occupied buildings on the street adjoining to the southern compound wall of the society.  In its plea filed in 2000, the society had additionally raised grievances concerning development of a public bathroom on the mentioned street on the behest of an area corporator.

Fifteen years later, on June 18, 2015, the HC had handed an in depth order declaring the mentioned buildings ‘unlawful’ and had directed the slum dwellers to vacate their buildings instantly and had directed BMC to demolish the identical. It had requested BMC to take actions to revive the ‘established order ante’ on the website.

Stating that the BMC ‘merely ignored’ court docket orders for causes greatest recognized to them, the society filed a contempt petition in January, 2017.

Few days after the BMC assured the court docket of demolishing the buildings, in September, final 12 months, the 5 slum dwellers filed a plea looking for restraining order to authorities till a rehabilitation website was chosen. The HC had granted the keep on demolition pending the plea.

The society by advocate Meena Doshi argued that the slum dwellers suppressed their illegalities and sought dismissal of their plea. The judges famous that they have been “unable to know how the unlawful occupiers have been held eligible slum dwellers’ by BMC even after the court docket declared them as unlawful. The HC famous that the slum dwellers failed to point out any doc to substantiate their eligibility declare.

The bench famous that unlawful occupants have been protected and solely in October, final 12 months, 47 of 52 buildings have been demolished because the  ‘legislation abiding society members’ waited for twenty-four years for his or her removing.

It added that denying justice to the society, the BMC, police and ‘unscrupulous elected representatives’  went ‘out of their option to defend’ wrongdoers/slumlords, as a substitute of taking strict motion towards them.

“BMC’s inaction, even after court docket orders, demonstrates its complacency. It’s these unlawful occupants, who now demand relocation of their alternative and as per their dictate, which can’t be accepted…. This perpetuates illegalities. Then to prime it off, the federal government comes up with schemes for rehabilitation which might be freely saleable, all at the price of the law-abiding residents and ratepayers,” the HC noticed.