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Ratilal S. Pujara (Since Deceased) Thr. His LRs. vs Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 867Decided 25 Aug 2022
Civil Appeal No. 5825 of 2022
N.V. Ramana · Krishna Murari · Hima Kohli

Background

The appellants, legal heirs of the late Ratilal S. Pujara, occupied Flat No. 9 in a roughly 55-year-old building in a Chembur (Mumbai) co-operative housing society. A mandatory structural audit found the building "C-1" category, dangerous and unfit for habitation, and the Municipal Corporation issued a demolition notice and an eviction notice under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act. The society had already entered into a redevelopment agreement with a builder, and all other flat-owners had vacated, but the appellants challenged the notices in the Bombay High Court, which dismissed their writ petition; they then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the Municipal Commissioner's satisfaction that the building was dangerous was recorded through the due legal process (structural audit report, inspection, and opinion under Section 353B/354 of the MMC Act) and was not shown to be perverse or illegal. The appellants' real grievance was an unrelated pending dispute about "unauthorized" status of their flat's terrace and a status-quo order in that separate first appeal, but the Court held this had no bearing on the Corporation's independent duty to act on a building found structurally unsafe for the whole building, not just their flat. The Court noted the redevelopment agreement protected the appellants' rights (a larger replacement flat and displacement/shifting compensation), so demolition would not extinguish their independent property rights. Given the documented risk of collapse and precedent of building collapses in Mumbai, the Court refused to interfere merely because the appellants were senior citizens, and dismissed the appeal, upholding the demolition and eviction notices.

Lesson Learnt

A municipal body's power to declare a building structurally dangerous and order its demolition for public safety operates independently of unrelated private disputes (such as a dispute over an individual flat's alterations), and courts will not stall safety-driven demolition where residents' property rights are otherwise protected through a redevelopment scheme.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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