August 29, 2025: The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has approached the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing of its pleas challenging a Bombay High Court order which directed the formation of a high-level committee to examine the issuance of 935 notices under Section 79-A of the MHAD Act.
The matter was mentioned on Thursday before a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. He argued that the High Court had incorrectly held MHADA as not competent to demolish unsafe structures. Stressing urgency, he said: “Because of heavy rains, some buildings have started collapsing. We will therefore be praying for a stay of the order, and the matter requires urgent hearing.” The bench has now listed the case for September 16.
The impugned order was delivered on July 28 by a division bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Justice Arif S Doctor. The court criticised executive engineers for issuing large-scale notices under Section 79-A without jurisdiction, observing that such powers could only be exercised if a building had already been declared ‘dangerous’ under Section 354 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act or by a competent authority defined under Section 65.
The High Court stated that the “brazen” issuance of notices violated constitutional rights under Articles 14, 21 and 300A, and accused officials of high-handedness and abuse of power. It further held that a constitutional court could not remain a passive spectator when state power was being misused for extraneous considerations.
Aggrieved by this ruling, MHADA contended before the apex court that the municipal corporation itself had categorised the buildings as unsafe, and therefore, the notices issued under Section 79-A could not be deemed without jurisdiction. Multiple petitions have since been tagged together, with the Supreme Court to decide the matter in mid-September.
Source: Live law.in
