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The Afternoon Desptach & Courier
In a landmark judgement, Justice G S Patel at the Bombay High Court, on Wednesday, directed a developer to pay tenants, stipulated monthly rent by 5th of every month, failing which the permission granted for redevelopment project located at Wadala West, will be cancelled, without even a show cause notice.
The judge also directed that there will be an annual increase of rent by Rs.4000/- per month and there will be no variation of this under any circumstances. “In the event that a single cheque to any of these persons is dishonoured, I will give the developer, the liberty of making any other alternative arrangement for timely payment, but payment on time will be made without exception and with no scope for any extension. In unusual or extreme circumstance, a short and reasonable extension of time, may be granted, but it will not be more than 10 calendar days”, the judge noted.
The above directions were given in response to a contempt petition (No. 38/2017) (suit No. 2160/ 2009) by the judge, who observed that the developer had not paid rent to the tenants since May 2017 onwards, despite his earlier order passed on 14th February 2018.
The issue relates to the redevelopment of 32 BMC chawls, spread over 3 lakh square feet area (CTS No. 437). The plot used to accommodate 318 residential, 4 commercial tenants, one bal mandir and an experimental block. However, based on the Bombay High court order, the BMC evicted the tenants on 14 May 2015 under police protection and they were sent to transit camps.
These chawls were constructed by the BMC after the great Bombay dock explosion of 1944 and its employees were accommodated on rental basis. Subsequently they formed “Azad Nagar Bhadut Mandal” in 1980. In 1992-1993 they decided to go in for redevelopment under section 33(7) of the BMC Act and entrusted the work to “Parul Developers”. However there had been dispute among tenants and the architect as well as developer were changed.