Supreme Court (File)
Temporarily relaxing the Bombay High Court embargo on new constructions in Mumbai, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed building works in the city subject to stringent conditions for disposing of the debris. Any breach, it warned, would result in cancellation of the building permission or the Intimation of Disapproval (IOD), which is an essential permission given to the developer by the municipal authorities, and the work would be liable to be stopped immediately. The high court had placed the embargo “because of the alarming impact of the inability of” the Municipal Corporation to deal with and safely dispose solid wastes and construction debris generated by the construction activities.
The top court’s order comes on an appeal filed by the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry which had challenged a February 2016 order of the high court, dismissing the Chamber’s review plea against its earlier order banning new constructions. “We…direct that any construction that is permitted hereafter for the purpose of this order shall be only after adequate safeguards are employed by the builders for preventing dispersal of particles through the air. This shall be incorporated in the IOD, unless it is already so incorporated,” a bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao ruled on Thursday. The bench added that its order will operate for six months after which it will review the situation.
Laying down the conditions, it said “the Municipal Corporation (of Greater Mumbai) shall permit a builder or developer to carry on construction on their sites by imposing the conditions in the IOD (Intimation of Disapproval) or any such permission, that the construction debris generated from this particular site, shall be transported and deposited in specific site inspected and approved by the Municipal Corporation”. The Corporation “shall specify such a site meant for deposit of construction debris in the building permission or IOD” and “shall also ensure compliance by regular inspection of both, the construction site and the landfill site”, said the court.