Mumbai: The Bombay High Court dismissed 26 pleas filed by the BMC, most of them in 2018, to condone delay ranging from one year to nine years in filing appeals against city civil court orders that stayed or set aside various demolition notices against illegal constructions across Mumbai. Appeals have to legally be filed in 30 days.That so many matters were not reported is a serious cause “for introspection in the working of the world’s largest corporation,” said Justice Jitendra Jain in an April 2 order available on Saturday.The HC said the delay lacked “sufficient cause”, was not legally justified and civic officers who failed to inform their superiors of the orders passed against the BMC by the subordinate court be taken to task, the HC directed. But the HC gave the civic body liberty to carry out fresh inspections of the alleged illegal constructions and issue notices if required so that illegalities, if any today, don’t go unpunished due to civic officials’ inaction.“This court cannot be used as a tool for inaction and dereliction of duty by the officers of the corporation,” said Justice Jain. He added that citizens have “high expectations from the newly appointed” civic chief, Ashwini Bhide, who he added “has created history” (by becoming the first woman civic chief for Mumbai) and hoped she lives up to the expectations and doesn’t let citizens down.The BMC said the Dec 2017 fire at Kamla Mills Compound, in which innocent young lives were lost, was a wake-up call for the corporation and it started an enquiry into illegalities only to find that demolition notices stayed or quashed were not challenged for years.“The corporation should have an inbuilt system whereby the progress of the litigation pending before various courts should be monitored by the superiors either by calling the junior officers or by making certain notings which will get reflected on the system. Such a thing should not happen in future. In my view, if reasons are correct then superiors are equally responsible for dereliction of their duties,” Justice Jain added.The HC said for Kamala Mill compound, the state must have taken appropriate action. BMC junior officers failing to inform seniors is a “shocking” reason, said the HC, adding there appears to be “more than meets the eye”. When counsel for BMC Narendra Walawalkar said action was initiated against various officers in 2018, the HC said these actions ought to have culminated in some departmental action, else it would reflect a “sorry state of affairs”. It also said mere issuance of show-cause notices in 2018 can’t be done to attract its sympathy to condone the statutory delay. The HC sought a compliance update by Aug 2026 on these notices to civic officials. The HC said the action should also be against superior officers and ought to be “preemptive”. Justice Jain said, “Only some officers cannot be made scapegoat and others go untouched.”
