No court protection for slums
HC asks BMC to provide rehab to hutments along Tansa pipeline.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court has refused to grant any interim relief to hutments along the Tansa pipeline and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide rehabilitation to eligible hut owners at Mahul.
The court also told the BMC that it was free to allot tenements at Mahul to the eligible persons that the BMC was restrained from allotting as it was meant for persons affected by the Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System (BRIMSTOWAD) project.
The BMC sought directions from the Chief Justice to club all petitions pertaining to the Tansa pipeline demolition to be heard by one bench, as there were conflicting orders of different benches.
A division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice A.K. Menon was hearing a public interest litigation pertaining to illegal hutments in which numerous petitions on behalf of hutment dwellers from the H-East and L ward sought permission for their petitions to be heard too.
While initially the bench said that it was not supposed to hear their petitions, after receiving directions from the HC administration, it agreed to hear them.
The petitioners sought ad-interim relief against the BMC’s decision to start demolition of hutments along the Tansa pipeline from November 24 and said that they were willing to be rehabilitated at Mahul provided they had an opportunity to study the options available to them. They also sought relief on the ground that nearly 2500 students living there would be affected by the demolition and the huts should be allowed to remain till the end of the academic year.
The BMC informed the court that it had made a list of hutment owners eligible for rehabilitation and were willing to provide them accommodation at Mahul but were restrained by a November 9 order of the Chief Justice which said that tenements at Mahul for BRIMSTOWAD affected persons should not be given to other project affected persons.
The BMC further informed the court that as different benches were issuing conflicting orders related to demolition of hutments lining the Tansa pipeline, all petitions should be clubbed and heard by a single bench.