As per Section 471 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, a person trading and storing goods in an unauthorised manner is fined. Moreover, if the fire brigade finds the illegal trade dangerous to people’s lives, goods can be seized.

(Written by Omkar Gokhale)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday admitted before the Bombay High Court that it did not have the power to completely shut down illegal/unlicensed eateries operating in Mumbai. The high court pulled up the civic body over its admission that it can only impose fines on such eateries or conduct seizures against them, and that more stringent laws are required to close them down.

As per Section 471 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, a person trading and storing goods in an unauthorised manner is fined. Moreover, if the fire brigade finds the illegal trade dangerous to people’s lives, goods can be seized.

“The Fire Officer has the power to visit and inspect the premises. However, there is an ambiguity in law over whether said premises can be sealed or not. We will approach the committee constituted by the government to amend the Fire Act,” submitted special counsel Girish Godbole for the BMC.

Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi was present in court after a division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and BP Colabawalla had summoned him last week. The judges issued the summons as they were angered after the BMC counsel had last week submitted that an unlicensed restaurant called ‘Aamantran’ in Kandivali (East) does not pose danger. The court issued a rebuke over the BMC counsel’s statement.

“ Why did the corporation not move the state government after the Kamala Mills fire (December 2017), when so many people lost their lives? What did the corporation do? Today, you are pleading helplessness,” Justice Kathawalla said on Monday, after the BMC counsel said it will request the state government to amend Section 471 of the Municipal Law.

The court said it had passed nearly six orders in the matter, and that the BMC’s legal department had failed to comply. The BMC responded that the Additional Municipal Commissioner and the Fire department would coordinate with the lawyers.

The bench also pulled up the BMC for the lack of coordination between its officers and lawyers, leading to delays and adjournments in civic cases over the years. It noted that the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court had in November 2019 assigned 1,319 pending cases of the civic body to a special bench.

Pardeshi told the court that the BMC will revamp its legal department to reduce the pendency of cases. “I am taking cognizance of the matters and the serious observations of the court… There is a deficiency on our part. We will show improvement,” he said.

“There are over 98,000 cases against BMC in courts. I have appointed Ashutosh Salil, an IAS officer with a Harvard law degree, to head the legal department and revamp it. The BMC wants to reduce the cases from nearly a lakh to 30,000,” Pardeshi told the court.

The court was also told that the Junior Panel representing the BMC will be changed in keeping with its previous order. This comes after the HC had pointed out incorrect facts presented by the BMC counsel, and had last month directed the BMC to immediately replace its junior counsels.

The HC, in its order, had observed that there is no improvement in the legal department’s functioning and asked the BMC chief to remain present in the court.

The bench on Monday asked the BMC to file a reply to the plea regarding the unlicensed restaurant and asked the owner of the establishment to remain present with permissions during the next hearing on Wednesday.