Bombay High Court gives state till Sept 16 to demolish Mazgaon court building

Incessant rains over the last few days has delayed the pulling down of the Mazgaon court building, following which the government has sought three months' time from the Bombay High Court to complete the demolition. The ground plus five floor structure has been declared dilapidated and evacuated.

A division bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and Dr Shalini Phansalkar Joshi has given the government till September 16 to demolish the structure. It said, "With the ensuing Ganpati season starting from September 5, heavy vehicle entry in the Mazgaon area will surely be restricted by the traffic police. If trucks are not allowed to remove the debris, the demolition will be delayed further."

Government pleader Poornima Kantharia submitted a report to the court, informing that almost 70% of demolition was done and rest of the work was held up because of the rains.

Earlier, the government had assured the court that the building will be brought down before the onset of monsoon and work on constructing the new building will commence thereafter.

The five-storey Mazgaon court building was inaugurated in 1997 by the then chief minister Manohar Joshi and the then chief justice of the high court M B Shah. There were 13 courts in the building, covering several police stations, including Pydhonie, Dongri, JJ Marg, Nagpada, Agripada and Kalachowki.

After the building was declared dangerous, the court has been functioning from the Sewree sessions court. The state government had then proposed to build a new court building at an estimated cost of Rs387 crore.