The owner and the tenants of the heritage structure have been at loggerheads for many years. While the owner wants to pull it down and construct a new building, the tenants want it to be repaired.
The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) to hold a joint meeting with the owner and tenants of century-old Esplanade Mansion to discuss its redevelopment.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla was hearing a petition filed by one of the tenants and advocate Ashok Sarogi challenging the eviction notice issued by the Mhada Repair Board on June 1 directing the tenants to evict as the building is dilapidated and dangerous.
The owner and the tenants of the heritage structure have been at loggerheads for many years. While the owner wants to pull it down and construct a new building, the tenants want it to be repaired.
Esplanade Mansion is India's oldest surviving cast iron building. Earlier known as Watson's Hotel after its owner, it is popular with lawyers due to its proximity to the HC and the sessions court.
According to the petition, the building is a heritage structure and the owners are interested in redeveloping it. Sarogi argued that the building could be repaired in a phase-wise manner without displacing the tenants.
The bench has directed the civic body and Mhada to hold a meeting with the owner and tenants of the building. The BMC has been asked to submit a report on June 19.
"For the purpose of redevelopment, the owners are required to accommodate the existing tenants in the newly constructed building but the owners are not ready to do this. The building is in a repairable condition. In the past also eviction notices have been issued and the tenants have been protected by the court. Despite ordering the owner to carry out repair work nothing is being done," the petition alleges.
The petition has sought quashing of the eviction notice of June 1 and also a direction to the owner of the building and Mhada to issue a no objection certificate for repair of the building.
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