Mumbai: In a significant decision that will impact future development projects in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has informed the Bombay high court that henceforth Occupation Certificates (OC) will be issued to developers only after they have secured the water connection certificate.
The submission was made by the BMC in the petition filed by a Ghatkopar resident, Subodh Joshi, who had approached the court, complaining that his flat was in a redevelopment project of a building without proper water connection. He underscored that since BMC had granted an OC to the developer, the latter was forcing eligible persons to take possession of their flats.
The HC pulled up BMC, directing it to streamline its process so that such issues do not crop up again. The BMC in its affidavit has stated that it has issued a circular about not issuing an OC to a building before the water connection certificate is procured. The notice has been circulated to all its wards. A notification to that effect will be issued in the next two-three days.
The division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Gauri Godse, while hearing Joshi’s petition, had been informed by advocate Ashok Saroagi that the petition had been filed after the developer had asked his client to move into the flat allotted to him in a newly constructed building. Saroagi had submitted that the building did not have proper drinking water supply nor water connection, and yet the developer was forcing his client to occupy the flat.
The building is one of the five in a redevelopment project at Ghatkopar; Joshi was allotted a flat on the fifth floor of one of the buildings.
The HC had then appointed a Court Receiver and asked him to visit the flat allotted to the petitioner to verify his claims. After the receiver submitted his report confirming Joshi’s claims, the court had pulled up BMC and the developer.
The developer, through senior advocate Birendra Saraf, had assured the HC that eligible persons would not be forced to take possession of the flats till the water connection from the BMC’s mainline was installed. The developer had also assured the bench about providing potable drinking water to those who were already occupying the flats. The BMC was then asked by HC to streamline the process to ensure that such instances were not repeated.
On Friday, the BMC submitted an affidavit through advocate Sagar Patil in the HC, stating that henceforth OC would not be issued to any building in the city until the water connection certificate was secured by the developer.