Bombay High Court orders a three-month deadline for demolishing illegal constructions
KDMC contractors carrying out demolition of unauthorised buildings
While demolition of unauthorised, unoccupied, and illegal buildings within the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) jurisdiction has begun following recent Bombay High Court directives, KDMC has also started receiving requests in the past few days for regularising some occupied structures.
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mid-day contacted the KDMC commissioner, who is leading the demolition drive. The Bombay High Court has set a three-month deadline to complete the demolition of illegal structures while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Sandeep Patil, an architect from Dombivli.
The petitioner highlighted the rampant unauthorised construction in approximately 27 villages within Kalyan and Ambernath talukas, alleging that developers bypass compliance requirements by using forged documents.
mid-day in its article titled ‘Court mandates linking MahaRERA with local bodies for buyers’ protection’ highlighted the six directives from the Bombay High Court on the PIL.
Notice issued
Dr Indu Rani Jakhar, commissioner, KDMC said, “Out of 65 buildings mentioned in the PIL, we have found out that only 58 buildings, are within the jurisdiction of KDMC and remaining buildings are with MIDC and MMRDA jurisdictions. Moreover, out of 58 only 57 buildings have to be demolished by KDMC, as construction work on one proposed building never started."
Dr Indu Rani Jakhar, commissioner, KDMC
“So far, six (eight-delete) unoccupied structures under construction have been fully demolished and four others were partly demolished, as it was partially occupied, out of the remaining 47 (58-delete) structures. Some of the buildings are partly occupied and some are fully occupied, so notices for vacating the buildings have been issued to them.”
When asked who would foot the demolition expenses, the commissioner said, “The recovery of demolition charges is the responsibility of the developer, and our system records the same, which will also reflect on the property tax due on the said land. Whenever the developer / land owner approaches the corporation for approval of plans, our records show the balance recovery due and only once he clears the dues, we can process his requests for approval of plans etc.”
Regularisation request
Dr Jakhar added, “Some of the residents from these buildings approached the corporation, requesting to regularise their structures, and some approached stating that their building names were wrongfully designated in the unauthorised list.”
“We will study every request received and check all legal viabilities before we can decide on the same,” she said.
On Rehabilitation
“We have to understand that the occupants, who reside in unauthorised structures are not entitled to any rehabilitation programme from the state machinery and therefore proper due diligence is a must, before making a choice of the property and putting in your life savings and availing bank loans,” said the commissioner.
Model code of conduct
The commissioner added, “The issue pertains to the time period prior to 2020, when the corporation had no role, as these villages came under respective Gram Panchayats / Zilla Parishad, who were also the local town planning authority.”
“However, with the two recent elections and subsequent code of conduct in place, demolitions were on halt post-March and no demolition can happen during monsoon, as per state government norms. Similarly, with the state Assembly elections in November, after monsoon, and a fresh code of conduct in place, we could not carry out demolition. And now that we have a small window before the civic elections are announced,” she said.
What next
The corporation would soon be submitting its report before the high court, which would have status on demolished structures and those that could be regularised, if at all.
Also, in the larger interest of flat buyers, and to ensure that proper due diligence is done by them before investing in a property they must log on to the KDMC website (https://kdmc.gov.in) and they can look for the repository records of the particular project by merely inserting KDMC unique number, which will soon be allocated to each project, wherein all details about the project would be available on the tip of the finger, she concluded.
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