It basically is about confidence-building measures between tenants of decrepit buildings and builders interested in redevelopment. The judgment provides a framework for greater transparency with the civic authorities playing the role of an intermediary.
The civic authorities have been assigned the task to ensure that all evacuees are first informed about the redevelopment plans and the area they would be eligible to in the redeveloped building. To improve the trust factor, civic authorities are to post online updates on the redevelopment.
It is important to break the cycle of mistrust as building collapses have killed more than 800 in the Maximum City over the past five decades. While the situation has been remedied to a certain extent through some positive cases of redevelopment over the past two decades, the process still has to achieve the level of a transparency that will fetch the desired results.
Over the years, the High Court had been trying to save lives by ordering tenants of buildings declared dangerously dilapidated to vacate if the majority has agreed to a redevelopment scheme. Welcome as these judgments were, they resulted in a situation where tenants in general felt insecure. They felt that redevelopment was being foisted on them on unequal terms.
Hence the importance the recent order of the division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Gauri Godse which seeks to correct the perception. Hearing a petition filed by 24 occupants of a commercial building at Tardeo, who said that there were apprehensions in the way the landlord had tried to get them vacated, the bench issued eight guidelines for the BMC.
The guidelines include providing a copy of the area statement submitted by the owner or prepared by the BMC to the tenants and uploading the same on the BMC website in a manner that can be searched.
The other guidelines refer to disputes arising from the area statement that is to be adjudicated by the BMC as per their record and provision of inspection of the project or property to the tenants. Lastly, the guidelines dwell on the provision of transit protection to be approved by the BMC if the tenants are eligible for the same.
Now, even if the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the BMC identifies a building to be a C-1 category (in imminent danger of collapsing), neither the civic authority nor the owner can forcefully evict the tenants without first ensuring that their interests are protected and area plans are shared with them.
This order of the HC will go a long way in reducing the trust deficit which is holding up the redevelopment of thousands of buildings. There are 11,000 rickety buildings in Mumbai alone with 337 of them, including two civic schools, listed as unstable and likely to fall.
Actually, the BMC need not have waited for this judgment. This is already known to it as the Jain pattern. Devendra Jain, a former Deputy municipal commissioner, had a way of convincing tenants of dilapidated who risk death as they do not trust the government, the landlords or the builders.
Jain studied each case and make a presentation on the pros and cons of living in such structures. To assure residents that they would not be duped, each tenant was given a BMC certificate mentioning the carpet area of his/her flat in the redeveloped building.
By the time he retired in 2020, the `Jain pattern’ managed to convince residents of 100 buildings to vacate.
However, the method needs time and dedication as it involves meeting tenants and landlords face to face. Besides, not all dilapidated buildings have the same issue. Civic officials need to identify them and resolve them to build confidence.
The HC judgment only reinforces the fact that the BMC can come up with winning ways.
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