A Terrible Example of What Happens When People Don’t Follow Rules in India

Indians are known for their disregard for following rules and the law. The general attitude is do what you want and deal with the consequences later. I’m guilty of adopting this attitude to a certain extent.

When I was at Amber Fort in Jaipur with my mother recently, I horrified her by following an Indian and climbing up on one of the old cannons for a photo, even though it wasn’t allowed. “Sharell, don’t do that! You’ll get in trouble from those guards,” she warned. “Yes, I know, mum. But by the time they notice and tell me to get down, the photo will have been taken. I’ll just pretend to be ignorant about it.” Sure enough, that’s what happened.

(Here’s the photo, and I’m looking shamelessly pleased with myself).

If you can't beat em, join em!

However, breaking more serious rules can sometimes have very serious consequences. In Mumbai, it seems that 140 families are about to become homeless. They’re being evicted from their spacious apartments in Worli, which are going to be demolished by the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) on Thursday.

These days, I usually just ignore such matters because they’re a depressingly common occurrence. This one is such a shocking mess, and is the culmination of so many laws being flouted, I couldn’t help writing about it though.

Here’s a summary of what happened:

Way back in the 1980s, a builder developed a plot of land in Worli that was originally used by a drinks company to manufacture a brand of cola. The BMC gave the developer approval to construct nine buildings, with ground plus five floors in each.
In September 1984, the builder submitted revised plans to the BMC, to construct up to 24 floors and 16 floors in the buildings. The BMC rejected the proposal. However, the builder ignored the decision and kept on with construction.
In November 1984, the BMC issued stop work and demolition notices. Despite this, construction still continued. The BMC gave in to pressure from the builder and took no further action.
The illegal construction continued from 1984-1989. Court records show that the builder got away with paying paltry fines ranging from 600-2000 rupees for violating town planning laws.
Residents subsequently purchased the completed apartments and moved in, even though the BMC had not issued Occupation Certificates for the buildings. (OCs are granted to new buildings after the BMC has verified that they’ve been constructed according to approved plans. It’s illegal to occupy flats in a building without an OC, and the residents were informed of this).
Even though it’s illegal to occupy a building without an OC, according to this article, the BMC simply charges residents twice the water supply and sewerage disposal taxes if they do occupy it.
Residents state they were paying property, municipal, and water taxes to the BMC for the past 25 years that they occupied their apartments. They’ve also paid stamp duty on their apartments.
In 2005, residents made a plea to the High Court to get water connections to their apartments as these had not been granted by the BMC (residents have relied on tanker water the whole time).
The High Court asked the BMC why it had not provided water connections to the buildings. The BMC said the reason was because OCs had not been issued, due to Floor Space Index violations.
The High Court noted that the BMC had not taken any action over the construction of the illegal buildings. It summonsed the Additional Municipal Commissioner, who promised to take action. Later in 2005, the BMC issued demolition notices. It rejected the housing societies’ replies to the notices, leading to a second round of litigation.
In February 2013, the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of all floors above the five floors that were legal in all buildings.

Unless something drastic changes, the demolition will go ahead and residents will be homeless. The apartments would be worth crores of rupees, and the residents have plunged all of their earnings into them. Most of them can’t afford to go anywhere else (apart from far flung suburbs), and certainly not buy another apartment. They’ll lose all their money. The elderly, as well as children who are undergoing exams, will be disrupted.

It’s a terrible tale of corruption and people who have disregarded numerous laws.

What I struggle to comprehend though, is how residents have paid legal taxes and charges for 25 years on illegally occupied apartments!

And who should ultimately be responsible for this mess?