In a major setback to developers of Worli high-rise Palais Royale, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday held that 13 floors of the 56-storey residential tower were illegally built and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to take action as per law.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice C V Bhadang while upholding the decision of the Municipal Commissioner which held that 13-floors starting from the 44th floor to the 56th floor were illegally built has given the developer two months' time to approach the corporation with a proposal for regularisation if not then after four months the civic body to take action of demolition.
The civic commissioner will also have to recalculate the refuge area after passing the necessary order if it goes against the developer.
The court also set aside the order of the City Civil Court allowing the 15-storey public parking lot built by the developer Shri Ram Urban Infrastructure, as deemed permission, FSI of which the developer allegedly used for building the illegal floors. Thereby, the 15-floor parking lot is also termed as illegal. The building has apartments of sizes between 4,000 and 14,000 sq ft.
The bench said, "Municipal Commissioner was right in expressing distaste about the manner in which the builder went ahead with constructing in complete defiance of law." It also rejected the argument of the developer that huge investments were made in the construction by saying that "Major investment cannot be a ground to tolerate illegal construction."
The developer had challenged the civic chiefs order stating that areas exempted from the building's FSI, like refuge areas, passages, swimming pools, be now counted as part of it. The commissioner had directed the developer to reduce the building's refuge area FSI from the current 70% of the total construction to just 4%.
Another Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO Janhit Manch raised many issues, it broadly concerned violations in constructing the refuge area — the space where residents can take shelter in the event of a fire and the public parking lot next to Palais Royale.
