Prima Facie Court Machinery 'Abused' To Demolish Decades Old Crematorium: Bombay HC Pulls Up District Collector Mumbai Suburban, MCZMA

The Bombay High Court on Monday reprimanded the District Collector Mumbai Suburban and the MCZMA over demolition of an old crematorium in Mumbai without serving any notice to the local fisherfolk who built it.

The division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Madhav Jamdar saw red over the manner in which the authorities obtained demolition orders from a coordinate bench when the CJ was unavailable.

"Prima Facie we are satisfied that machinery of the court has been abused to ensure removal of the crematorium," the CJ said in his order.

The bench noted that the fish-folk were neither made party to the petition at the time of seeking demolition orders nor were they put to notice despite the court explicitly stating that any demolition must be in accordance with the law.

After Senior Advocate Milind Sathe for the Maharashtra Coastal Regulatory Zone Authority (MCZMA) submitted that there was no illegality in MCZMA directing the district collector to demolish the crematorium, the bench said.

"Every action must start with a statement of allegation. If that is not there, we will be compelled to record this is a very high-handed action," the CJ remarked. To ascertain if MCZMA was even authorized to pass such an order the bench directed the BMC to inform it on Wednesday if it had records of the crematorium prior to February 18, 1991, ie. Before the CRZ notification was issued.

The bench was hearing and PIL by one Chetan Vyas claiming that construction ongoing at the crematorium cite was contrary to the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority and BMC.

Villagers said the land was reserved for crematorium in the 7/11 extract. The court it appeared that the old construction was damaged by Cyclone Tauktae last year. The fishermen required time to show the existence of the crematorium prior to 1991.

The matter will now be heard on Wednesday.