VIMAL BUILDERS Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We are not in the least impressed by the attempt to deviate or resile from the statement made in an Affidavit made on 16/3/2017 by none other than a Assistant Commissioner (Estates) of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai ("MCGM") in Writ Petition No. 2205 of 2016, which is at page 182. There is no attempt to even say that the relevant portion of this Affidavit in relation to preparation of the Annexure II for both plots, i.e., for the portions handed over and the portions not handed over, was an inadvertent oversight or error. Mr Masurkar, the Assistant Commissioner (Estates), in para 7 of his affidavit unequivocally states that Annexure II for both portions has been-- "prepared and certified and are pending for no objection". It is the no objection that is said to be under process.

(2.) From this morning, every effort is being made to tell us that there is in fact no final and certified Annexure II, but that it is only in draft -- and that, too, since 2009. It is not explained to us how this statement came to be made from a high-ranking officer of the MCGM. The categorical statement made is that the Annexure II has been prepared. That is one. Then it is said that this prepared Annexure II has been certified. That is two. There is no question of there being only a draft today.

(3.) Indeed, if the Annexure II is still in "draft", then that makes matters worse, because the MCGM wholly fails to explain what, if anything, it has been doing since 2009, the supposed date of the draft. We are expected to believe that it is perfectly all right for slum dwellers entitled to rehabilitation to have to wait for 14 or 15 years for a certification of an eligibility list and that this delay is entirely without cost or consequence to the MCGM.