The Detrimental Nexus

The Whistle Blower bona fide Flat Owner’s face demolition threat – thanks to the detrimental nexus of Chairman of the Society – Builder – BMC – MHADA

The flat owners who purchased flats in a reconstructed building in Tilak Nagar and brought the illegal and unauthorized construction going on for more than a year to the notice of BMC, are now facing the threat of their own flats getting demolished by the BMC.

When the flat owners intrigued by the lack of proper open spaces and proper access to their wing of the building approached the BMC’s Building Proposal Department under Right to Information Act 2005, they were shocked to learn that the seven storey building and a huge shop being constructed attached to their wing sas totally illegal and unauthorized.  More shocking was the revelation that the part of the building was constructed on a piece of land which is an NDR plot adjacent to the Society’s plot.  There was no document on record of BMC to prove the ownership of this plot and no plans whatsoever were submitted to the BMC for construction on the said plot till the first week of February 2008.

When these facts were pointed out to the BMC officials they reacted by issuing a notice under MRTP Act to demolish the 7th floor of the ‘B’ wing occupied by bona-fide purchasers, who themselves had brought the said irregularities to the notice of BMC along with the demolition of the unauthroised seven storied building and the shop.  This notice to demolish the 7th floor which is occupied by bona-fide purchasers is perceived as an arm twisting tactics by the BMC in connivance with the builder and the Chairperson of the Society so as to compel the residents to withdraw their complaint and to enable the BMC et al to regularize the unauthorized construction in the bargain to save the skin of the BMC officials who allowed such unauthorized construction to continue.

However the fact that the 7th floor in the ‘B’ wing was built without a permissible FSI was deliberately, intentionally and knowingly hid by the builder and the Society. The Builder also made forged Plans of the building available to the purchasers of the flats on 7th floor and the Society issued NOCs on the basis of which the purchasers could get financial assistance from Banks. All the 7th floor flat owners have also registered their agreement after paying requisite stamp duty and registration charges.   

Around August 2003 Bharat CHS in Tilak Nagar decided to demolish their old building and develop their plot to take benefit of MHADA’s sanctioning of additional FSI by reconstructing the building to rehabilitate the original 36 members of the Society in Wing A and constructing Wing B as saleable component.  The Society granted the right of development in favour of Mr. Javed Memon of Paradise & Bhoomi Developers

Accordingly Wing ‘A’ of the building was reconstructed. Thereafter Wing ‘B’ was constructed and the flats were sold to the purchasers during construction in and around the year 2006 by the builder.  The flat owners took possession of their respective flats around Dec 2006 at the instance of the builder after paying full consideration for the flat and advance maintenance charges for one year.

The builder whilst giving possession of the said flat compelled the purchasers to sign on a plan which he claimed was sanctioned by the BMC for construction of a separate wing attached to B Wing (as C Wing) having 7 floors  and a huge shop which he claimed was a community hall (as D Wing).  None of the flat owners were given any details about the proposed construction by the builder or the Society. The D Wing Shop has been constructed in such a way that the terrace of the same can be used by the builder from the 1st floor and 2nd floor flats presently occupied by the builder himself. This huge terrace is used by the builder’s family as their own private terrace. On the other hand the forty odd families staying in the B wing are robbed of their open spaces. For the children of these families there is no open space to play, let aside a garden and other amenities that were promised by the builder at the time of sale. Residents fear that these unauthorized structures would cause hindrance in the smooth plying of the vehicles or the movements of the residents including the movement of the fire-brigade vehicle and the ambulance in case of emergencies like fire or earth quake.

From the time the residents took possession of their respective flats they were facing various problems like lack of open space, unclean surrounding, open live wires, frequent breakdown of lift, irregular water supply, leakage, improper entrance, etc. Neither the builder nor the Society took any cognizance to their complaints in this regard.  Therefore, the flat owners had a meeting on December 2007 to discuss and find out solutions and thereafter handed over letters to the builder addressing all their grievances.  At the time of handing over the letters, the builder assured that all the construction carried out by him was as per plans approved by the BMC.

In January 2008 it was learnt that the builder would be closing the area being used by the residents of ‘B’ wing as the entrance and convert it in to a shop to give the same to the Chairperson of the Society (who had unsuccessfully contested the last BMC elections on the NCP ticket and now is also using her political clout to harass the residents) and make a small entrance of less than 3 feet available to the residents of Building ‘B’ Wing as an entrance. However, since the construction activities prima-facie created doubts in the minds of the residents about its legality they approached the BMC and the MHADA under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The information unearthed so far had opened a Pandora’s box of irregularities and frauds committed by the builder in connivance with some of the office bearers of the Society as well as some officers of BMC and MHADA.

The most striking irregularity that a six storied building and two shops admeasuring more than 6000 sq. feet has come up on a plot without a single paper being submitted to the BMC for sanctions and without allotment of FSI by MHADA!!

The residents have filed a Writ Petition (No.WP/474/2008) before the Honorable Bombay High Court which is at admission stage.

The Sequel

The entrance of our building (29, Tilak Nagar, Mumbai 89) was blocked by putting iron grills by Mrs. Jaykar, the Chairperson of the Society, at around 11 am on 13-03-2008, the day our Writ Petition No.474 of 2008 was due for admission wherein the matter related to illegal unauthorized construction, FSI violation, open spaces, entrance, etc. was placed for admission before the Hon’ble Div. Bench of the High Court of Bombay.

When the residents approached the local Tilak Nagar Police Station to lodge a complaint the police refused to accept the complaint stating that it was a civil matter

Later when police called the builder Mr. Javed, the builder, he informed that he had entered in to an agreement for the said alleged shop with one Ms. Jaykar, in 2005. However, there was a specific clause in the said agreement which read “The builder shall give possession of the unit to the purchasers on completion of entire project including NDR-1 as it will be used as entrance.” And because of the said understanding he had not given possession of the alleged shop to her as the project is not yet completed.

On 14th morning complaint was submitted to Home Minister and DCP Zone VI. Later in the day another letter was submitted to police sating that because of their non-cooperation 5 residents had chosen to go on Hunger strike.

On 15th residents met DCP and briefed him about case. Sr. PI asked Javed to get the entrance cleared. The Advocate for Javed in presence of Sr. PI was pressurising the residents to withdraw their Writ Petition.

Later in evening the builder and police came on site to get the entrance cleared. Just when the grills were removed Kumud Jaykar came along with her daughter Poonam who carried a can of kerosene into the alleged shop. When the residents were about to enter the building through the entrance peacefully, Poonam started pouring kerosene on herself and threatened to commit suicide. Her mother instigated her to put herself afire. Immediately the resident withdrew from the premises and asked police to intervene. Sr. PI witnessed all this commotion. Afterwards Sr. PI asked Poonam to change her kerosene soaked cloths and come to police station. Meanwhile, the kerosene can mysteriously disappeared from the site.

At the police station it was evident that police were not keen to sort out the problems of residents. However, after lot of arguments, the resident returned back from the police station and decided to discontinue their hunger strike on the assurance of Sr. PI that the said entrance will not be used by both the parties till the matter is decided as per law.

From the discussions in the police station it appeared very clear that Javed, Jaykar and Sr. PI were conniving with each other to deny the rights of the residents. It was learnt that the police did not register any case against Poonam, Mrs. Jaykar and Javed even after persistent requests by the residents to do so.