Public interest litigation dismissed as abuse of process where filed with suppressed facts, private motives against developer, raising disputed plan compliances without genuine public interest.

Judgment :

Shree Chandrashekhar, CJ.

The Altamount Road Area Citizens Committee which is represented through its Chairman, namely, Captain Ashok Batra and one Bhuvneshwari Kumari Jadeja who claimed herself to be a Committee Member have filed this public interest litigation raising certain issues relating to the construction of a building over 21, Altamount Road, Mumbai. The petitioners state that the permissions, concessions, approvals and sanctions granted by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and its officers in favor of 15^th respondent- M/s Krishna and Company are arbitrary, illegal and in contravention to the Rules, Regulations, Notifications etc. The petitioners are, therefore, seeking an interference by this Court with the plans sanctioned for the subject building from time to time and other permissions and clearances granted for construction of the said building over CTS No.648 which was formerly known as Lincoln House.

2. The petitioners state that Prithvi Apartments Co-operative Housing Society Limited, Prithvi CHS made a complaint to the Municipal Commissioner through the letter dated 12^th October 2011 regarding the sanctioned plan and redevelopment of the subject building. Around the same time, Prabhu Kutir Co-operative Housing Society Limited, Prabhu Kutir CHS which is one of the members of the Altamount Road Area Citizens Committee also made a complaint to the Municipal Commissioner on 31^st October 2011 and pointed out numerous violations in the sanctioned plan and redevelopment of Lincoln House but the Municipal Commissioner did not respond to the same. The complaints made by Prithvi CHS and Prabhu Kutir CHS did not evoke any response from the Municipal Commissioner and therefore the local residents approached a member of the Legislative Assembly for taking action in the matter. Regarding the illegal construction of the said building, there were newspaper reports published on 9^th November 2012 and 12^th December 2012 in Mumbai Mirror. The petitioners state that it was in this background that the petitioner no.1 and three other affected Co-operative societies made a complaint to the Municipal Commissioner through the Advocate’s letter dated 20^th December 2012 for causing an inquiry into the matter. The petitioners further state that Prithvi CHS which was provided with a copy of the Nasti file relating to construction of the subject building shared the said file with them which disclosed that a proposal was submitted by 16^th respondent who is the Architect appointed by 15^th respondent-Developer for the redevelopment of Lincoln House consisting of two floors over the ground floor and standing over CTS No.648 proposing demolition of Lincoln House and construction of two buildings, one comprising of the ground floor and twelve floors and the other building comprising of a Stilt floor with seven additional floors. A perusal of the Nasti file recorded several startling facts in respect to which complaints were made but no action was taken. Prompted by the inaction on the part of the State-respondents, the petitioners filed this public interest litigation. They took out Chamber Summons on 3^rd February 2014 for amending the petition to challenge the amended plan dated 9^th December 2011 and they were permitted to carry out the amendments within four weeks vide order dated 26^th July 2016. Thereafter, there was another change in the building plan and the petitioners filed interim application vide Interim Application (L) No.2881 of 2023 to lay a challenge to the amended plan dated 15^th June 2018.

3. In th