The Bombay High Court last week observed it could not recognise any rights of the petitioner – Rassi (rope) holders, who wash clothes at Dhobi Ghat near South Mumbai’s Jacob Circle — to obstruct the Slum Rehabilitation (SR) project when an alternate site has been offered to them.
The court, while disposing of a plea by rassi-holders, said they were using the land only for inserting ropes and were not enjoying occupation of any residential or commercial structure. Therefore, they cannot cause any hurdle and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is free to take action to ensure smooth redevelopment, it added.
Some of the petitioners entered into an amicable settlement with the developer. The settlement related to transit rent to be paid for five years and assistance to find an alternate place till then, which the court has accepted.
The project in question – located on the land belonging to proposed Saibaba Nagar SRA CHS – is of over 28, 000 square metre area, including over 7, 000 square meter of non-slum area reserved for drying clothes.
The petitioner claimed the washermen and rassi (rope) holders have been using the land for over 100 years and the land reserved for drying clothes was amalgamated into the SR project without their consent, with no equivalent land being earmarked.
A division bench of Justices Girish S Kulkarni and Aarti A Sathe had noted the petitioners, who are “rassi holders”, use the land in question to dry clothes on fixed ropes, which is a subject matter of redevelopment.
“Thus any right in respect of such use of the land is only for the purpose of inserting the ropes and it is not in position that the Petitioners are enjoying any occupation of any residential or commercial structure. The Petitioner hence cannot cause any hurdles in the implementation of redevelopment which is now being permitted and being undertaken by Resonant Realtors Projects Pvt Ltd (Formerly known as Omkar Realtors),” the HC observed in its October 15 order.
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The bench added, “In this view of the matter, we cannot recognize any rights of the petitioners to obstruct and cause a hurdle in not removing their ropes more particularly when an alternate site has been offered to them by the Respondent.. Thus the Municipal Corporation or any other authority is free to take any appropriate action qua any obstruction in the smooth redevelopment of the scheme. In any event considering the nature of the scheme, such a meager number of persons cannot stall the redevelopment.”
On October 16, advocate RD Soni for petitioners told the bench that they had amicably resolved the dispute.
The settlement mentioned the developer has agreed to pay “each of the five out of eight petitioners monthly transit rent of Rs 30, 000 for three years in advance and deposit in court transit rent for further two years”, among other aspects.
The developer will build and handover the Dhobi Ghat reservation to BMC within five years from the date the vacant site is made available for construction. The five of the petitioners have agreed to vacate their present drying accommodation before November 15 and the developer will assist them to shift the rassis to another place within Mumbai.
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“In our opinion, the settlement as brought above is a reasonable settlement and is intended considering that the project needs to be taken forward by respondent developer, which would ultimately be for the benefit of all the parties,” the HC noted.
