Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has pulled up the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai civic body over rampant illegal construction in the city, saying it appeared the "state's property was the paternal property of the executive". A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni made the remark on Tuesday while hearing public interest litigation taken up suo motu (on its own) last year on illegal constructions across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) after the collapse of a building in Bhiwandi town of neighbouring Thane district.
Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy along with advocate Joel Carlos, representing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), submitted that the state's slum rehabilitation policy-protected encroachers. Hence, the civic body could not take action against them under provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act. The BMC had a limited role to play as an outsider authority, they said.
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