The residents of Campa Cola Housing complex in Worli, Mumbai, facing demolition threat, had a glimmer of hope to save their properties when the Supreme Court on Monday allowed them to bring fresh documents on record to seek reprieve against the court ' s earlier order directing razing of illegal structures.
A bench headed by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya issued notice to Maharashtra Government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on the application made by the residents in the affected societies.
The residents accused the Mumbai Corporation of “suppressing” the fact that the Additional Municipal Commissioner had in principle decided to regularise the work already carried out beyond the approved plans and the Architect was informed to pay `6.56 lakh as penalty to settle it.
The application annexed a letter of July 28, 1986 issued by the authorities in this regard. As per the order, the penalty was paid and the construction was regularised. The residents attached proof of this communication exchanged between the authorities and residents from time to time to prove this fact. However, later the authorities realised that the penalty was not charged as per the prevailing land rates and hence a revised penalty was worked out at `11.20 lakh. Since the balance of roughly `4.64 lakh was not paid by the developer, the residents claimed that notice of this fact was not given to them that gave rise to the present controversy.
The apex court on October 1, 2013 directed the municipal authorities to demolish the extra floors built in violation of the layout plan. Seven high-rise buildings of Campa Cola Housing Society were constructed between 1981 and 1989 when builders had permission for only six floors. One of the compound buildings, Midtown, has 20 floors and another building, Orchid, had 17 floors. Over 102 illegal flats were affected by the Court order.