The Bombay High Court came down heavily on the practice of stalling of cases that were pending due to the grant of ad-interim relief in such matters. A Division Bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and BP Colabawalla was hearing a writ petition filed by the concerned petitioner in the instant matter seeking an appropriate writ, order or direction directing the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Assistant Municipal Commissioner, to demolish an unauthorized construction of structure with brick masonry wall.

The case history of the instant matter involved a direction by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai stating that an inspection be made to confirm whether the constructions made on the disputed property were illegal. Pursuant to the above order, the Municipal Corporation issued a notice to the third respondent stating that the structures on the property were illegal.

Thereafter, the third Respondent in the instant matter approached the City Civil Court for an ad-interim injunction which was granted. The Hon’ble Bombay High Court observed that the City Civil Court had passed an order without going into the merits of the case, and specifically remarked upon the fact that there was no hearing on the Notice of Motion yet. The Hon’ble Court took a grim view of the practice of obtaining ad-interim injunctions as a matter of course in demolition cases, and that during the pendency of the matter in the City Civil Court, no further action is taken.

The Court, remarked as follows,

“A copy of this order shall be forwarded to the Principal Judge, City Civil and Sessions Court to ensure that ad-interim urgent orders passed in the aforestated routine manner without going into the merits and without the Corporation getting enough time to take instructions in the matters, do not continue for an indefinite period but the matters pertaining to unauthorized constructions where such exparte urgent orders are passed should be taken up for final hearing and decided on merits at the earliest.”

Judgment Link: Indu Sarathi Developers v. MCGM & Ors.

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