HC issues contempt notice to Thane civic chief for failing to raze illegal building

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday issued a contempt notice to the Thane municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao for failing to comply with an assurance given to the court to raze an under-construction illegal building in Kalwa.
A division bench of justice MS Sonak and justice Kamal Khata has asked Rao to file his reply by August 30, explaining why action should not be initiated against him for contempt of the court.
The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by Ayubali Ibrahim Khanbande, complaining that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) failed to comply with the assurance given to the court on July 11, 2024, that it would execute its demolition order dated 14 January 2022 within four weeks.
The building owner then approached the court, but the bench dismissed his plea on August 9 while refusing him any relief and ordered TMC to file a compliance report on August 26. However, on Monday when the matter came up for hearing, no compliance report was submitted and the counsel for the civic body was not able to give any information about the status of the demolition.
From the submissions made by TMC’s counsel, the judges thought that “the corporation has now had a change of heart for reasons best known to its commissioner.”
“Accordingly, we get an impression that the TMC, after making solemn statements before this court, wants to now go back upon such statements. The TMC has not even bothered to file any compliance report or state why their own statements are not being complied with,” said the court. “This avoidance of compliance, at least prima face, appears to be willful and deliberate,” it added and issued a contempt notice to the civic chief.
Acting on complaints filed by Khanbande, the civic body had on January 14, 2022, passed an order for demolition of the illegal building, which was being constructed near Jama Masjid at Old Mumbai-Pune Road in Kalwa.
Though the work at the site was stopped, the municipal corporation failed to pull down the illegal structure, prompting Khanbande to approach the high court. Responding to his petition, on November 16, 2021, TMC had already issued stop work and demolition notices to Abdul Majid Bharmar, who was carrying out the unauthorised construction and would take the notices to their logical conclusion.