Follow due process for demolishing building: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has allowed a petitioner to reconstruct an illegal structure that was demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the demolition was undertaken without following the due process of law. The petitioner was also asked to issue a notice to the BMC before commencing the reconstruction. The court however stated that the order would not give any legitimacy to the illegal construction and has permitted the BMC to re-demolish the structure after following due process of law.

A division bench of justices A.S. Oka and P.N. Deshmukh was hearing a writ petition filed by a garage owner whose 2,800 sq ft structure was demolished by the BMC on October 6, 2017 without issuing them a notice or a proper hearing. The petitioner claimed that they had purchased the structure from the previous owner who had constructed the structure after getting it assessed by the Tahsildar for non-agricultural purposes. Hence the demolition by the BMC was not justified.

The BMC argued that the demolition was carried out as the structure was illegal, but also admitted that they had not followed proper procedure. After hearing both sides the bench referred to a previous order by the then chief justice pertaining to the act of demolition carried out by the Pune Municipal corporation in the Sopan Thopte case and said that the order had listed the procedure to be followed by the civic corporation for carrying out a demolition and as the BMC had not followed the procedure, it allowed the petitioner to reconstruct the demolished portion of the structure using the same material that was used originally.