Bombay HC Rules Encroachers Have No Legal Right On Footpaths, Upholds BMC Demolition In Powai

Mumbai: Encroachers cannot assert any claim, much less any legal right whatsoever to encroach on the footpath, observed the Bombay High Court.

Demolition Plea Rejected by HC

A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Arif Doctor refused to stall demolition of shanties erected on a Powai footpath observing that they had “no legal right whatsoever” to occupy public pavements.

Background of Encroachment

The HC was hearing an interim application filed by 24 hutment dwellers who sought a stay on earlier court directions permitting the Brihanmumbai Municipal COrporation (BMC) to remove illegal structures opposite Tivoli Co-operative Housing Society.

The society had petitioned the court for removal of unauthorized shanties, and the court had already passed detailed orders on July 7, July 21, and August 12 directing strict civic action against encroachments.

The applicants were among thousands displaced from another plot demolished on June 6, 2024 in Powai’s Jai Bheem Nagar, and had no option but to occupy the pavement.

They argued that demolition during the monsoon violated a February 2001 Government Resolution prohibiting such action and that the civic body could not proceed without hearing them.

BMC’s Legal and Civic Standpoint

However, BMC counsel SU Kamdar and Tivoli’s counsel Priti Shah opposed the plea, calling the applicants “rank trespassers.” They pointed out that notices under Section 314 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act had been served, including public notices pasted on the structures, which were later torn down by encroachers. They stressed that the encroachers were fully aware of impending demolition and had even been offered alternate premises.

Court Highlights Public Safety Concerns

The bench noted that photographs showed a “neatly constructed footpath completely encroached by temporary tin/plastic sheds being used for residence, cooking and selling food,” forcing citizens to walk on busy roads.

“We wonder whether public convenience and utilities of such nature can be discarded and encroachment tolerated whereby citizens, young, old and disabled alike are made to walk on roads to commute, endangering their lives,” the court observed.

Rejecting the plea, the court said the applicants had failed to show any legal entitlement. “The whole intention of these applicants is to defeat the orders which are passed by this Court… We cannot countenance any action of rank encroachers on the footpath,” it remarked.

The court also noted that significant public expenditure had been mobilised for the demolition drive, including police deployment, and any delay would hamper civic action. Concluding that the interim application was “devoid of merits,” the court dismissed it without costs.

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Special Cell to Monitor Footpath Encroachments

While deciding Tivoli’s plea, the HC had directed the BMC Commissioner to form a special cell consisting of an Additional Commissioner and two senior officers by grouping wards which shall follow the due process of law to identify rank unauthorized/ unlicensed persons occupying footpaths to survey all the footpaths in the city of Mumbai, which have been encroached and an eviction action to be taken against them, in accordance with law. “Such illegalities need to be strictly dealt with,” the bench had observed.