MUMBAI: Brazenly unauthorised constructions cannot be allowed to be regularised, the Bombay high court reiterated on Friday while ordering Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to proceed with planned demolition of a partly occupied six-storey unauthorised building near Mumbra. The court also said that occupants of such unauthorised and illegal premises can have no legal right whatsoever.
The division bench of justice GS Kulkarni and justice Arif Doctor was hearing a petition filed by a local resident, Feroz Talukdar Khan, complaining about the construction of the illegal building in Sheel locality, without any permissions.
After TMC counsel informed the court that the civic body had initiated demolition of the structure, Hasan Miyaz Ahmed Shaikh, who constructed the building, urged the court to stop the demolition and direct the municipal corporation to consider his plea, filed on May 19, 2025, for regularisation of the structure.
The bench rejected the request, saying a person cannot seek regularisation of an illegal building constructed by breaching laws with impunity. The bench said that pleas for regularisation under provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act can be considered by planning authorities only, in cases of minor deviations and genuine and bona-fide reasons only.
While saying that conferring legitimacy to such constructions would create a situation of absolute lawlessness, the court rapped TMC officials after noticing that although a stop-work notice was issued by the assistant commissioner of the ward on February 21, 2024, when the construction work was at plinth level, the notice was not taken to its logical end and the building was allowed to come up.
The court observed that such neglect cannot arise unless such construction has the covert blessings of the government officers, adding that the initial notice remained only on paper without any action taken by the municipal officers to remove the plinth and prevent further construction.
The bench also rejected the contention of the builder that the building was partly occupied and that third party rights had now been created in favour of those occupants. To this, the court said occupants of unauthorised and illegal premises can have no legal right whatsoever. “Neither equity nor sympathy can be shown to such occupants who have purchased premises in illegal constructions,” said the court.