SC stays Bombay HC order allowing podium recreation grounds

MUMBAI: In a setback for builders, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed a January 2023 Bombay high court (HC) order which allowed recreation grounds (RG) on the podiums of their towers.
In the HC, the developers' association Naredco had sought a clarification to a September 2022 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that said a developer cannot show any podium in a building as an RG. The NGT said a recreational ground should be open to the sky to enable the planting of trees.

The HC order was a relief for builders as their projects were not receiving mandatory environmental clearance (EC) from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), which cited the NGT order. The HC had directed SEIAA to decide on such requests in eight weeks on merit.
An HC bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne said SEIAA "could not have deferred decision of proposals for grant of EC merely on the basis of the judgment and order dated September 13, 2022 of NGT" which was in one particular case and "would not govern each and every proposal submitted before SEIAA under the Development Control Promotion Regulation (DCPR) 2034".
The SC on Monday issued notice to the state, SEIAA, Slum Rehabilitation Authority and builders' association Naredco West Foundation. The notice was on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by an advocate, activist Sagar Devre, who sought to challenge the HC order. An apex court bench, of Justices Abhay Oka and Rajesh Bindal, after hearing advocate Vivek Shukla for Devre, issued the notice and posted it for hearing on July 31.
Shukla had argued before the SC that the HC order effectively meant that SEIAA was to approve podium-level garden and RG proposals instead of providing them on the ground level. Shukla said the NGT order required the RG reservation to be on the ground as mandated by the SC in a matter between BMC versus Kohinoor and others and argued that the HC had overstepped the judgments of the apex court and NGT. He said the HC order itself noted that RG needed to be given on the ground.
Justice Oka, who headed the SC bench, after hearing Shukla, issued notice and said, "In the meanwhile, there will be stay of the directions contained in the impugned order passed by the high court."