The housing body has failed to collect compensation from developers, even though the public Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has found proof that MHADA officials and developers conspired and caused a loss to the public exchequer in the redevelopment of the city’s cessed structures.
In the meantime, MHADA has petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse the 2019 Bombay High Court ruling that ordered the filing of a formal complaint against negligent MHADA personnel. The housing body’s plea before the Supreme Court was deemed “illegal and bad in law” by activist Kamlakar Shenoy, who also charged that it had not approached the court with “clean hands” and had omitted important details.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police was instructed by the 2019 HC judgement to file a formal complaint (FIR) because MHADA officials failed to retrieve surplus territories from defaulting builders, causing a loss of Rs 40,000 crore during the 1990s. Shenoy, 65, discovered the bigger swindle after falling victim to a builder’s property scam. In an attempt to get MHADA’s special leave petition against the HC ruling dismissed, he has now submitted written arguments to the SC.
According to information obtained through RTI, MHADA had given redevelopment NOCs for 1,728 projects as of March 14, 2014, and 379 builders had fallen behind on their responsibilities. In 2017, Shenoy brought a public interest lawsuit before the HC. The Supreme Court later sent Shenoy a notice when MHADA appealed the HC’s 2019 decision.
The activist has now asked for the MHADAS petition to be dismissed, claiming that the HC’s judgement only requires the trial court to follow the law once it has taken cognisance of the offence. He warned that overturning the HC ruling may create a risky precedent that would incite public officials to be careless, which would result in more losses for the exchequer.
Source: The Free Press Journal
