The court upheld the necessity of demolishing a structurally unstable building while ensuring the rehabilitation of its long-term occupants.

ORDER :

SUNITA AGARWAL, C.J.

Heard the learned counsels for the parties and perused the record.

2. We may note that there is no dispute about the fact that the occupants of the building known as Sardar Bhuvan Complex situated besides Sardar Statue on the Station road, Nadiad, have been occupying small shops (40 in numbers) for a long time and have been paying the lease rent to the then Nadiad Nagarpalika. The then Nadiad Nagarpalika has been converted into the Nadiad Municipal Corporation with effect from 01.01.2025. Mr. Mehul Shah, the learned advocate for the Corporation has provided a chart showing the date of expiry of the lease of the shops as also the date upto which the rent had been paid by the occupants.

3. The appellants/original petitioners herein are 15 in number. It is the specific case of the petitioners in the writ petition that they had paid lease rent for occupying the shops by them uptil the year 2022, and after the year 2022 the officers of the Nadiad Nagarpalika have refused to receive the rent. The contention in the writ petition is that the petitioners are running their small businesses from the shops-in-question which are the only source of their livelihood. They had paid rent to the then Nagarpalika apart from the municipal taxes.

4. In the year 2020, some repair and renovation work was carried out at the expense of the shop owners. Suddenly in the month of May, 2024 (28.05.2024) the original petitioners had received notice under Section 182 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963. The officers of the respondent No.2 came to the premises on 03.09.2024 and asked the petitioners to vacate the shops by 12 noon on 04.09.2024. This had led to the filling of the writ petition namely Special Civil Application No. 13063 of 2024, wherein the order dated 04.09.2024 was passed issuing notice and granting interim order directing the parties to maintain status quo.

5. The said writ petition was disposed of on 10.09.2024 wherein with the intervention of the Court, the then Nagarpalika was permitted to carry out the exercise of cleaning of the kaans (drain) subject to the condition that minimum damage would be caused while undertaking the said exercise. It is an admitted fact of the matter that pursuant to the directions contained in the aforesaid decision dated 10.09.2024, the blockage for the drain has been cleared off.

6. Be that as it may, the impugned notices, subject matter of challenge before the learned single Judge in the writ petition, out of which the present appeal has arisen, were issued on 25.11.2024, wherein the petitioners have been directed to vacate the building-in-question on the premise that the building-in-question is in dilapidated condition, as it was construed over the kaans (underground drain) and there is a report to that effect obtained from the expert namely BVM Engineering Collecge. The copy of the report dated 10.10.2024 is appended at page No. '125' of the paper book.

7. The conclusion drawn in the report dated 10.10.2024 at page No. '138' are:-

"1. The report is prepared based on the visual observation and non-destructive tests conducted on the site. No structural drawings and/or details were made available.

2. The building is almost 61 years old. There is no any footing found for the building. The building is directly supported on the top slab of the Kans (i.e. underground sewage drain).

3. There is no specific foundation provided for the building. The bottom part of the top slab of the Kans is deteriorated due to direct contact with Sewage. The bottom reinforcement of the top slab of Kans is seen to be exposed at few locations. It was informed by the authorities that a similar building on the same Kans was existing (in the close proximity of this building), which had collapsed due to deterioration of top slab of Kans.

4. The building load transfer mechanism is such that the entire-load is carried by the top slab of the existing Kans. No structural details of the Kans are available. The tests carr