MUMBAI: Tensions are running high in Willingdon View Co-operative Housing Society (CHS), a 34-storey tower in south Mumbai’s Tardeo, where 27 families must vacate 34 flats spread across the 17th to 34th floors by August 27.
The move follows a Supreme Court order last week declining to interfere with the Bombay high court’s directive to evict residents from the upper floors, which have neither an Occupancy Certificate (OC) nor a fire department No Objection Certificate (NOC).
By Friday evening, the residents are required to submit undertakings to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) confirming they will vacate by the deadline. Any failure to comply, officials said, will lead to forcible eviction with police assistance and sealing of the premises.
“They must submit their undertaking by Saturday. If they fail to do so, we will begin eviction with the police force on Monday,” said Manish Valanju, assistant commissioner of the BMC’s D Ward.
On Wednesday, the high court reaffirmed its earlier order and granted three weeks to vacate the upper floors. The Supreme Court had praised the ruling as “very well considered, bold and lucid” and said, “At the end of the day, the rule of law must prevail,” while allowing the society to seek more time from the high court to vacate — a plea that was rejected.
Lawyers for the society cited the 2013 Campa Cola compound case, where the Supreme Court granted temporary relief to residents of unauthorised floors on humanitarian grounds. The high court dismissed the comparison, stressing that planning regulations and statutory provisions cannot be overridden.
“No court can grant relief contrary to statutory law,” the bench observed, adding that continued occupation of buildings without OC and fire clearances would set a dangerous precedent and compromise public safety.
The court also criticised a recurring pattern in Mumbai’s real estate sector — where developers and societies exceed permissible limits and later seek protection on humanitarian grounds.
Residents, who bought their flats in 2010 for over ₹1 crore each, now face losing homes valued at about ₹5 crore apiece. Each of the affected floors has two 850 sq ft flats. While many residents declined to speak to the media, several confirmed they had already given undertakings to the court and would inform the BMC by Friday.