Don’t coerce slum-dwellers to vacate, HC tells BMC

In a relief to the residents of Bandra’s Garib Nagar, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) not to take any coercive action against the slums till further orders. The HC has asked the parties to maintain ‘status quo’ on the site in question.

A division bench of Justice Vasanti Naik and Justice Riyaz Chagla heard a plea moved by the residents of Garib Nagar slum, the area which was engulfed in fire last week. The slum dwellers have accused the BMC for not following due process of law in the demolition drive, it initiated claiming to be in accordance with the 2015 orders of the HC.

Senior counsel Anil Sakhare, appearing for the BMC apprised the judges of the 2015 orders of the HC wherein the civic body was directed to evict the hutments which had encroached upon the areas nearby the pipelines.

He told the judges that in compliance to these orders, the civic body was demolishing the illegal hutments, however, during the course of the drive, some shanties caught fire which later spread.

It may be noted that at least 358 odd shanties were fully engulfed in the fire. The slum dwellers have accused the civic body of not serving the demolition notices as per law (48 hours before demolition).

Accordingly, they sought directions to the BMC to restore their shanties by reconstructing them.

Having heard the submissions from both the sides the judges asked the BMC to file an affidavit spelling out the details of their demolition drive. The judges even asked the civic body to place on record the photographs of the site. Posting the matter for further hearing after a week, the judges directed the parties to maintain status quo.