The high court recently appointed a team of experts, including a structural engineer and an architect, to find out whether part of a 91-year-old bungalow, a grade II heritage structure at Nepean Sea Road, needs to be propped up for repairs. The team has to submit its report by May 6.
A division bench of justices VM Kanade and AK Menon said: "We are not experts on what is the proper way to carry out repairs and hence we will have to depend on experts' report."
The court directive came during the hearing of a petition filed by one M Merchant, who alleged connivance of developers and MHADA officials to declare the three-storey structure as dilapidated in order to re-develop it. This would result in people living in it for many years being forced out.
At a previous hearing, the court had expressed displeasure at having to hear several cases like this where old tenants were being harassed by developers/builders to force them out of the premises. It had said: "We are not amused that such things are increasingly happening; a situation is being created wherein tenants are made to leave. We want to do something about this."
Advocate Rima Merchant, arguing in person, had said that she and other tenants had been living on the ground floor (5,000 sq ft) of a 1923 building, Ram Mansion, since 1947. In 2010 a private developer purchased the property, and since then they had been trying to evict them.
"Since 80% of the property is in the developer's possession, they are trying to illegally damage it. Water tanks on the terrace are being allowed to overflow. Water then seeps into the walls and weakens the structure. My family is being stopped from repairing the premises even as the developer is carrying out demolition works disturbing us."
It was also alleged that the developer, in connivance with MHADA, had sent them two letters dated, September 21, 2013 and February 11, informing the Merchants that propping up being done inside their house was completely illegal.
The court while adjourning the hearing of the petition to May 8, kept all the contentions raised by the petitioners open. It said: "Let the experts' report come. After that we shall decide on other issues raised in the petition."
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