Illegal structure regularisation no right says Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has revoked a stay on the demolition of a shop located within the premises of a housing society in Jawahar Nagar, Goregaon (west). The court's decision comes with an observation that there is a common misconception among people that regularizing an unauthorized structure is an inherent right. In an order dated October 5, Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata remarked, This has now become a situation where regularisation is almost in the nature of a fundamental right. Every person seems to believe that planning law is irrelevant and that he or she is entitled to put up an entirely unauthorized construction and can then simply seek regularisation as a matter of right. The owner of the shop, Prakash Aswani, had approached the High Court seeking the quashing of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) demolition notice issued in November 2021. In December 2021, an interim stay on the demolition was granted by the HC pending further hearings. However, in January 2023, Vallabha Krupa Cooperative Housing Society informed the HC that the shop had been constructed in the passage leading to the entrance of the building. Due to the perilous condition of their building, the BMC had already demolished it. The society's advocate, Amogh Singh, explained that the shop was now obstructing the entire redevelopment process. The High Court's decision to lift the stay on the shop's demolition highlights the importance of adherence to planning laws and regulations while underscoring that regularization of unauthorized constructions should not be taken as an automatic entitlement.