ORDER

1. Having failed to convince the trial Court and the High Court to entertain their prayer for restraining respondent no. 1 - Municipal Corporation of Mumbai (for short, ‘the Corporation’) from demolishing the buildings constructed on Plot No. 9, Scheme 58, Worli, Mumbai, the petitioners have filed these petitions under Article 136 of the Constitution.

2. The petitioners are the Cooperative House Building Societies (for short, ‘the societies’) and their members, who are said to have purchased flats in the buildings constructed by the developers on the plot in question. Their grievance is that even though the flats were purchased under a bona fide belief that the buildings have been constructed in accordance with law, the trial Court and the High Court did not injunct the Corporation from demolishing the same on the ground that the latter had taken action in furtherance of the orders passed in Writ Petition Nos. 2040/1999, 2402/1999, 2403/1999, 2904/1999, 2949/1999 and 1808/2000.

3. The Corporation leased out the plot in question, of which the total area is 17907.60 sq. meters to M/s. Pure Drinks Pvt. Ltd. on 17.1.1962 for general industrial use. After 18 years and about 11 months, the State Government issued order dated 1.12.1980 under Section 37(2) of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 and sanctioned the change of use in respect of 13049.45 sq. meters land from industrial to residential. Between 1980 and 1982, M/s. Pure Drinks transferred that portion of land to the developers for construction of residential buildings. The building plans submitted by the developers for construction of 6 buildings comprising of basement, ground and 5 upper floors were sanctioned by the competent authority on 8.6.1981. The amended building plans submitted by the developers for construction of 9 buildings with ground and 5 upper floors were also sanctioned by the competent authority.

4. In 1984, the developers submitted new building plans proposing construction of two buildings on stilts with 24 and 16 upper floors respectively, additional 6th and 7th floors in building no. 2 and additional 6th floor on a portion of building no. 3. The new plans were rejected by the competent authority on 6.9.1984. Notwithstanding this, the developers continued the construction and did not stop their activity despite the stop work notice dated 12.11.1984 issued by the Corporation.

5. After the purchasers of flats formed societies, they along with the societies filed writ petitions for issue of a direction to the Corporation to provide water connections. During the pendency of those petitions, the Division Bench of the High Court took cognizance of the fact that the buildings had been constructed in violation of the sanctioned plans and passed order dated 11.10.2005 and directed the Additional Commissioner of the Corporation to appear in person to explain the reason for not taking action against the illegal construction. That order reads as under:

“In all these writ petitions, arguments were heard on behalf of the parties. None appeared for respondent no.4 in Writ Petition No.2904-99, for respondent No.4 in Writ Petition No.2403-99, for respondent Nos.4 and 5 in Writ Petition No.2402-99, for respondent nos.4 and 5 in Writ Petition No.1808-2000. Shri N.V. Patil, Sub-Engineer Building and Proposal (City) was present in Court to assist the Advocate for the Corporation.

2. In the course of the argument, it was revealed by the Advocate for the Corporation on taking instructions that original licence for construction was granted in favour of four persons viz. Shri Manjit Singh Madanjit Singh, Power of Attorney Holder of S. Karanjit Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Pure Drink Pvt. Ltd., Shri Ishwarsingh Chawla of PSD Construction Pvt. Ltd., Shri D.K.Gupta of D.Y. Builders Pvt. Ltd. and Abdula Yusuf Patel. Pursuant to the illegality in construction having been found, notices were issued under Section 53-1 of the M.R.T.P. Act on 20th February, 200