Public parking lot petition

Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Private Limited and its director M. B. Vakharia challenged in the Bombay High Court (BHC) the cancellation by the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) of a sanctioned plan to construct a multi-storeyed parking lot at Kalachowkie in central Bombay dated May 13, 2011. The BMC maintained that the state government was planning to make changes in its Development Control (DC) Regulations and had directed it to do so. On July 6, 2011 the BHC set aside the BMC’s order, pointing out that a policy cannot have retrospective effect, The Times of India (TOI) reported on July 7.

A division bench of Justices D. K. Deshmukh and R. G. Ketkar heard the petition. The petitioners said they had complied with all the requirements of the state government, the BMC and the experts committee, after which they had been issued with a letter of intent (LoI) on December 16, 2010 for developing the public parking lot. They wrote to the BMC regarding amendments which they wished to incorporate in the sanctioned building plan on April 19, 2011 and on May 13 the BMC responded that their proposal had been cancelled in keeping with the state government’s directive issued on March 13, 2011. TOI wrote that government plea­der D. A. Nala­vade told the BHC that this was done as the government was contemplating changes in the DC rules.

The judges however questioned the state’s power to cancel the proposal after an LoI has been issued. "Merely because the state government wants to incorporate changes in the DC regulations, it cannot direct the planning authority to cancel LoI which has already been issued,” their order stated. The executive engineer of the buildings department has been directed by the Court to consider afresh a proposal submitted by the petitioner according to the approved plan.