The Bombay High Court on Monday said it cannot force the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to retain the school building at Topiwala Lane in the Lamington Road area. Comet Media Corporation (CMC),an NGO specialising in alternative learning methods for children,had moved the High Court urging it to direct the civic body not to demolish a school building in Topiwala Lane where it has an office,since the building can be repaired. The NGO had stated that the corporation had served eviction notices on them and other NGOs holding offices in the same building as it wanted to demolish it and construct an electronics mall on its premises. Counsel for CMC,Gautam Patel,told the court that 528 NGOs across the city held offices in various BMC school buildings in the city. No other building has been treated like this, Patel said. On behalf of the BMC,senior counsel Ram Apte informed the court that the NGOs were only granted permission to use the premises and they did not have any right over it. We have no right to tell the BMC that they cannot construct a mall. It is their policy decision, Justice Ranjana Desai said. Along with CMC,which was allotted three rooms in the school in 1989,several other NGOs including the Dignity Foundation,Education Audiology and Research (EAR) Society,Institute for Exceptional Children,Alcoholics Anonymous and Salaam Balak Trust have had their offices on the school premises for nearly two decades. CMC stated that an eviction notice was served on it on February 4 and the premises sealed by the BMC a day later. Patel told the court that they just wanted to retrieve their computers and other belongings from the sealed premises. All these institutes are doing good work. We have sympathy for you but we cannot ask the corporation not to construct a mall, Justice Desai said. The court asked the BMC to consider letting the NGOs open their premises and take their belongings. Earlier this month,the court had reprimanded the corporation for its decision to demolish the school building. BMC cannot go on having malls everywhere. If a plot has been given to you (BMC) for a specific purpose,it should be used for only that. We cannot allow this, the court had said. However,the court was informed that the NGOs were tenants and had no right to seek to restrain the civic body from demolishing the building.
