In a major embarrassment for Maharashtra Excise Minister Ganesh Naik, the Bombay High Court directed his nephew Santosh Tandel to demolish a bungalow constructed illegally on a plot belonging to a State-run City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) at Navi Mumbai.
Giving a ruling to this effect while hearing a public interest litigation filed by RTI activist Sandeep Thakur, a division bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and SC Gupte observed that all including Ministers and their family members, were equal under law.
“The brazen manner in which the violation has taken place shows the complicity of the planning authority (Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation). The civic body has failed in discharging its duties. The law is the same for everyone. So what if the person involved is a Minister and his relative,” Justice Chandrachud said.
In his PIl, RTI activist Sandeep Thakur had that the Minister, his son Sandeep Naik and his nephew Santosh Tandel had usurped land measuring over 1.45 lakh square metres at Belapur. Tandel, according to the petition, constructed a bungalow called ‘Glass House’ on a 302 sq metre plot of land — which has been declared as a ‘No-Development Zone’ by CIDCO — owing to the fact that sea water accumulated there.
In its order given after examining the documents produced by the petitioner before it, the HC bench noted that the structure constructed by Tandel was “illegal and built without obtaining permissions”. The judges directed Tandel to remove the structure within two weeks failing which the municipal corporation would take necessary steps to demolish it.
Declining to entertain a plea by Tandel’s advocate that his client be given six weeks’ time to remove the structure, Justice Chandrachud said: “We will give six months to a slum dweller to shift but not to you. You have violated the law.” The court also wondered as to whether Tandel was the owner of the structure or was it owned by Ganesh Naik.
Alluding to the petitioner’s submission that there was police security for the Minister at the bungalow, Justice Chandrachud demanded to know: “If the structure does not belong to the Minister then why did he go there on 72 occasions between October and December 2011IJ” PNS n Mumbai
In a major embarrassment for Maharashtra Excise Minister Ganesh Naik, the Bombay High Court directed his nephew Santosh Tandel to demolish a bungalow constructed illegally on a plot belonging to a State-run City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) at Navi Mumbai.
Giving a ruling to this effect while hearing a public interest litigation filed by RTI activist Sandeep Thakur, a division bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and SC Gupte observed that all including Ministers and their family members, were equal under law.
“The brazen manner in which the violation has taken place shows the complicity of the planning authority (Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation). The civic body has failed in discharging its duties. The law is the same for everyone. So what if the person involved is a Minister and his relative,” Justice Chandrachud said.
In his PIl, RTI activist Sandeep Thakur had that the Minister, his son Sandeep Naik and his nephew Santosh Tandel had usurped land measuring over 1.45 lakh square metres at Belapur.
Tandel, according to the petition, constructed a bungalow called ‘Glass House’ on a 302 sq metre plot of land — which has been declared as a ‘No-Development Zone’ by CIDCO — owing to the fact that sea water accumulated there. In its order given after examining the documents produced by the petitioner before it, the HC bench noted that the structure constructed by Tandel was “illegal and built without obtaining permissions”.
The judges directed Tandel to remove the structure within two weeks failing which the municipal corporation would take necessary steps to demolish it.
Declining to entertain a plea by Tandel’s advocate that his client be given six weeks’ time to remove the structure, Justice Chandrachud said: “We will give six months to a slum dweller to shift but not to you. You have violated the law.”
The court also wondered as to whether Tandel was the owner of the structure or was it owned by Ganesh Naik. Alluding to the petitioner’s submission that there was police security for the Minister at the bungalow, Justice Chandrachud demanded to know: “If the structure does not belong to the Minister then why did he go there on 72 occasions between October and December 2011IJ”