{"id":220078,"date":"2019-09-26T18:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T12:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=220078"},"modified":"2019-09-30T14:48:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T09:18:44","slug":"bom-hc-mahul-inhabitable-residents-to-be-shifted-and-no-new-residents-to-be-accommodated-at-mahul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2019\/09\/26\/bom-hc-mahul-inhabitable-residents-to-be-shifted-and-no-new-residents-to-be-accommodated-at-mahul\/","title":{"rendered":"Bom HC | Mahul Inhabitable | Residents to be shifted and no new residents to be accommodated at Mahul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bombay High Court: <\/strong>The Division Bench of Pradeep Nandrajog, CJ and Bharati Dangre, J. while hearing a writ petition concerning the health hazards being faced by the residents of Mahul and Amabapada, the bench held that,<\/p>\n

\u201cNo family required to be rehabilitated as a consequence of slum clearance would be shifted to the PAP (Project affected Persons) colonies in Mahul or Ambapada and those who have been rehabilitated at the said two colonies under the slum rehabilitation schemes would be offered accommodation elsewhere\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facts to be noted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mahul and Amabapada are home to only a few local fishing communities and thick mangrove forests. State-owned refineries were established in the 1950s at Mahul with a view to gainfully make use of these lands with a negligible population.<\/p>\n

Nine major industrial units exist at Mahul including refineries of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as well as private industrial units such as Tata Power Thermal Power Plant, Sealord Containers and Aegis Logistics.<\/p>\n

Petitioner challenged allotment of tenements reserved for Project Affected Persons (PAP) to them in a PAP colony by the name of Eversmile Layout, developed by a private builder named Dynamix reality in Mahul, Chembur. Present petitioners were declared to be PAPs due to the Tansa Pipeline Project which resulted in dwelling unit\/slum located within 10 meters of Tansa Pipeline in Mumbai being demolished.<\/p>\n

The land on which Eversmile<\/strong> colony<\/strong> is located was originally demarcated to be a No-Development Zone <\/strong>in the Draft Development Plan of 1984. State Government had acquired all such lands on account of being surplus. Further, it was said to be exempt under Section 20 of the Urban Land Ceiling Act, 1976 by State Government for the purpose of constructing residential quarters for the staff of BPCL.<\/p>\n

Though in respect to the above, BPCL chose not to construct its staff quarters on the site where the PAP colony presently lies, eventually resulting in State Government modifying its order of exemption under Section 20 of Urban Land Ceiling Act to be for the rehabilitation of Slum dwellers and PAPs, at the request of Slum Rehabilitation Department and developer of PAP colony.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supreme Court and this Court have passed orders, at the behest of refineries of the region, estopping the development of private residential buildings in the industrial belt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eversmile Colony posits three issues that render the Colony uninhabitable<\/strong><\/p>\n