Unauthorised flat owners of Mumbai's Campa Cola Society on Tuesday made another attempt in the Supreme Court to get protection from vacating the premises by claiming that documents have surfaced to show there was a proposal for its regularisation.
"Application under Right to Information (RTI) Act was filed and documents have come showing lakhs of rupees were paid for regularisation," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for unauthorised flat owners, submitted before a bench of justices HL Dattu and C Nagappan. He said the civic body did not inform the court about the issue of regularisation.
The submission was made by him while arguing that in the light of the fresh documents, the apex court should recall all its previous orders which resulted in directing unauthorised flats owners to vacate the premises by May 31, 2014.
However, the bench expressed its inability to entertain the plea for recall of its orders and asked the society to explore the possibility of filing a petition for review of its judgement and directions. "You file a review petition and seek hearing in open court," the bench said while posting the matter for January 6.
At the outset, Rohatgi reminded the bench that before the final order of November 19, Attorney General G E Vahanvati had spoken about finding some solution for the residents but later he expressed his inability to give any relief and in the meantime the RTI application was filed.
The apex court on November 19 had asked unauthorised flats owners at the Campa Cola Society to vacate the premises by May 31, 2014 as no specific proposal could be worked out to provide them space in the compound for new construction. The apex court had passed the order as the Attorney General had said, "after considering all aspects we are not in a position to work out any specific proposal".
Earlier, on November 13, the apex court had stayed the demolition of the unauthorised flats by taking cognizance of media reports. The court on February 27 had ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to demolish the illegally constructed flats and on October 1 refused to re-consider its earlier order and had set November 11 deadline to vacate 102 flats which were declared as illegal.
However, on November 13, hours after over 100 agitated families clashed with the police while the civic squad was bulldozing its way into the premises, the apex court had stayed the demolition till further order, saying it was "badly disturbed by the development that is taking place at Campa Cola premises in Mumbai."
Seven high-rise buildings of Campa Cola Housing society were constructed between 1981 and 1989. The builders had permission for only six floors. One of the compound buildings, Midtown, has 20 floors and another building, Orchid, has got 17 floors.
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