Coastal authority’s notice to Worli high-rise stayed by the HC
The Bombay high court have granted stay of execution to an under-construction high-rise at Worli Seaface, the Sea Green housing society that had come under the scanner over alleged Adarsh-like violations for not obtaining CRZ approval and consuming extra FSI.
In an interim order last week a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha stayed the implementation of the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority’s (MCZMA) stop-work notice on the redevelopment project. However, the judges clarified that any application for granting occupation certificate for the building will not be considered by the BMC till further orders, hearing a petition filed by the society’s original 18 residents who have been staying in temporary accommodation since the building was pulled down in 2007.
The court noted that in 2006 when BMC had sanctioned the plans the building was constructed. “The complete building has been substantially reconstructed; and for the last seven years the members of the society are living in temporary alternative accommodation,” the court said, adding, ” in order to enable the petitioner society to complete the balance construction and the finishing work, the interests of justice would be served if the operation and implementation of the stop-work notice is stayed.” On June 16, 2014 the court listed the matter for final hearing.
Originally Sea Green had 18 flats. Before the BMC sanctioned it in 2006 its redevelopment plans underwent three changes. A year later the residents moved out and the building was pulled down to make way for a 14-storey high-rise. In 2011 stop-work notices was issued by the MCZMA saying the project did not have Coastal Regulation Zone nod. Although the reason was, the building plans were approved on the basis of Development Control norms of 1989 while for projects like Sea Green a Supreme Court order had held that the applicable DCR was of 1967.
The BMC, in its affidavit, said that the building had consumed only the permissible FSI of 1.33 and the excess area was counted. The residents in the appeal to the high court said that construction of the high-rise building was nearly 95% complete. They further claimed that “As the existing construction would remain open to weather causing damage to the construction work the society and its members will continue to suffer irreparable hardship, the position of which will be irreversible”.
Source: Times of India
Adarsh, BMC, Bombay High Court, Coastal Regulation Zone, CRZ, DCR, Development Control norms, FSI, M S Sanklecha, Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority's, MCZMA, Mohit Shah, redevelopment project, Residents, Sea Green housing society, Supreme Court order, Worli Seaface
