No stay on demolition of top floors of building near airport

The Bombay High Court today refused to stay its order directing demolition of top three floors of a residential building near the international airport here due to height regulation violations.
A division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade dismissed an application filed by SAILEE Developers Pvt Ltd, which is constructing the six-storey building, seeking stay on the HC order.
"The developer had endangered the life of not only those people who travel by flights but also of the occupants of the building. The developer committed fraud by misrepresenting facts before the concerned authorities and procured NOC," the court said.

On the last few hearings in the case, the court had said zero tolerance would be adopted for any kind of construction violative of height rules near both domestic and international airports in the city. The court had asked BMC to demolish the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the building.
The bench was today informed that demolition of a water tank on the terrace of the building is over and demolition process of the fifth and sixth floor was on.
Advocate Rizwan Merchant, appearing for the developer, urged the court to grant them a last chance and approach the BMC for re-verification of the height.

Merchant claimed that as per law the fourth floor will fall within the height limits.

Advocates S U Kamdar and Praveen Samdani, appearing for Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), however, said the developer was already given a hearing by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) following which the NOC granted to them was revoked.
"This matter is much more serious. Our anxiety is only that some untoward incident should not occur," the court said.
The court was also told by Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) advocates that action is being taken against 112 other structures which are violative of height regulations.

The court then directed AAI to conduct an inquiry to ascertain which officer is granting NOCs to such constructions and initiate action against the errant officials.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing on October 13.