Bombay High Court raps Thane civic body for delay in razing illegal mosque

The Bombay High Court has sharply reprimanded the Thane Municipal Corporation for failing to complete the demolition of an unauthorised mosque, despite clear directions in the past [New Shree Swami Samartha Borivade Housing Company and anr v Thane Municipal Corporation]..A Bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata rejected the Corporation's excuses for the delay and emphasized the need for strict law enforcement.“It is the settled position of law that, in a democratic State, a person/group of persons or an Association cannot be even permitted to say that, it will not follow the law of the land and will oppose it on any ground. In such circumstances, it is the duty of the law enforcers to make such person/persons/Association to abide by the law of the land. It is also necessary for the law enforcers to imbibe in the minds of the citizens that the violation of law and/or opposition to implement the law by the State will not be countenanced and/or tolerated," the Court said. .The case concerns a petition filed by the New Shree Swami Samartha Borivade Housing Company Pvt Ltd. The company, which owns over 18,000 square meters of land in Borivade Village, Kasarvadavali, sought a direction from the Court to compel the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to demolish an illegal structure that encroached on its land.According to TMC, a site inspection on January 1, 2025, revealed the structure to be a 3,600-square-foot ground-plus-one-storey mosque, which included a prayer hall. The mosque's occupants claimed it was built when the area was governed by a gram panchayat, but no municipal permission for the structure was found in TMC’s records. Following a show cause notice and a hearing, TMC declared the structure to be an unauthorized construction on January 27 and ordered its removal..However, Senior advocate Ram Apte, representing the TMC, told the Court that the demolition work had been delayed due to strong opposition from a mob that gathered at the site on February 19. Apte further explained that TMC had deployed 65 laborers and 10 officers to carry out the demolition, with police providing additional personnel to maintain law and order. Despite these efforts, the demolition work could not be completed.The Court, however, rejected this explanation, emphasizing the need to enforce the law firmly. .The Court also questioned TMC's failure to prevent the unauthorised construction in the first place, despite multiple complaints from the petitioners. “It will not be out of way to observe here that, when such a huge structure was being constructed by the Respondent Nos. 3 to 9, we wonder what steps the concerned Officers of Municipal Corporation have taken to prevent it, despite there being repeated correspondence of the Petitioners in that behalf," the Court said. .The Court further rejected the TMC's request for more time to finish the demolition, terming such a request unacceptable. “For a structure which, as per the photographs, has already been demolished to a substantive extent, four weeks further period is necessary to the Corporation to complete the demolition. Upon deliberation in Court, we were informed that two weeks period is sufficient to carry out balance demolition work. We accept the said statement," the Court observed. .The Court ultimately ordered the TMC to carry out the remaining demolition work immediately after the month of Ramadan/ Ramzan ends."(TMC) shall complete it within a period of two weeks therefrom (after the month of Ramadan) i.e. by 14th April 2025," the Court said in its March 10 order. It also emphasized that no one, including the respondents to this case, should attempt to rebuild the demolished part of the structure.Furthermore, the Court held the municipal officers accountable for ensuring the full implementation of the order..Advocate Kunal Dwarkadas along with advocate Nilesh Tated instructed by Mahimtura & Co. appeared for petitioners.Senior Advocate Ram Apte along with advocate Mandar Limaye represented the Thane Municipal CorporationAdvocate SS Patwardhan instructed by advocate Mrinal Shelar appeared for the Gazi Salauddin Rehmatulla Hoole alias Pardeshi Baba TrustAdvocate Siddharth A Mehta along with advocates Harshada Shrikhande, Vaibhav and Bhargavi Mundhe appeared for other respondents, Bashir Ahmed Mohamed, Husein Patel and Zaffer Suleman Shaikh .[Read Order]