People will remember Pratibha Building from the mid-80’s. That was the first high profile case of a tall building being asked to demolish floors that were illegal and not sanctioned.

In that case, if I am not mistaken there were 7-8 excess floors in a 30+ story building.

History repeats itself in Kandivili. A building sanctioned for 7 floors is now 24 stories high. My first question is, were the BMC inspectors blind. The building is thrice its sanctioned size.

In January 1992, the BMC granted sanction for a stilt-plus-seven storey building. In a routine inspection five years later, BMC officers found Gaurav Gagan had 24 storeys instead. Although the BMC promptly issued stop-work notices to the builder, no corrective action was taken after that. [link]

And then the people who buy flats that are on illegal floors are taking the BMC to court because it has asked these floors to be demolished.

“What is this farce? How can someone build 24 storeys when he has sanction for only seven?” Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the BMC counsel during a hearing on the matter in high court last week. “There has to be some sense of proportion.” The court has ordered the BMC counsel to look up the original papers pertaining to the building, and present them in court at the next hearing. A division bench with the chief justice and Justice SC Dharmadhikari will hear the case after two weeks.

I think the judiciary should take the builders to task for flagrant disobeyance of rules. It should take the BMC to task for negligence of duties. And the people who bought the flats on the floors to be demolished should sue the ass off the developers.

Life imprisonment for a few here would send out the correct message.

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