Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

5. The constitutional validity of the Bombay Buildings Repair and Reconstruction Board Act 1969 was challenged before the Supreme Court in Vivian Joseph Ferreira v. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay, . The challenge was inter alia on the ground that the imposition of a cess on residential buildings, which were in sound and good condition, and which would not require structural repairs for the entire period of the Act, was an unreasonable restriction and that the Act failed to recognise the material differences between buildings in relation to their physical condition. The Supreme Court noted that one of the features of the city was that a large percentage of residential buildings have been constructed several years earlier Page 571 and being an island city with limited construction space buildings had to expand vertically. The type of construction was that buildings were built on timber frames; several had 5 or 6 storeys with one or two room tenements, each of which was habited by a large number of persons. The saline atmosphere of the city coupled with the absence of repairs began to have its toll and there were collapses of houses which were virtually unknown in pre-war days. The Supreme Court noted that rents have been frozen under the Rent Control Act and that 17490 buildings of a total of 36,000 surveyed by the Corporation had outlived their lives and that by 1980 the rest would also have outlived their existence. In these circumstances, the Act was enacted to deal with the problem of only residential houses. The Supreme Court held that the legislature was justified in confining its attention to residential buildings where the distress was more acute. The legislature, the Supreme Court held, had two alternatives, the first being the reconstruction of a large section of the city and replacing new buildings in place of the old; while the second was preserving and prolonging the life of existing structures by carrying out structural repairs and alterations. The first option was liable to create legal and economic problems and hence, the legislature had considered it fit to confine its attention to the second option. The object of the Act was not to repair all residential premises but to preserve and prolong their life in order to avert the dilemma caused by the acute shortage of residential accommodation on the one hand, and the reluctance or inability of owners to carry out repairs. The levy of a cess for funding such repairs was consequently upheld by the Supreme Court.

7. Section 76 casts a duty on the Board to (i) undertake and carry out structural repairs to buildings in order of such priority as the Board considers necessary, without recovering expenses from owners or occupiers; (ii) provide temporary accommodation to occupiers while repairs are undertaken or when a building collapses; (iii) undertake the work of ordinary and tenantable repairs; (iv) move the Government to acquire old and dilapidated buildings which in the opinion of the Board are beyond repair and to reconstruct new buildings thereon; (v) move the Government to acquire old and dilapidated buildings which were structurally repaired by the Board when any further repairs are not possible or economical; (vi) construct transit camps to provide temporary accommodation; (vii) demolish dangerous and dilapidated buildings which are not capable of being repaired at reasonable expense. Section 88 of the Act empowers the Board to undertake structural repairs to buildings Page 572 which the Board is satisfied are in a ruinous or dangerous condition, subject to a statutory maximum in terms of value per square meter defined by the legislative provision. Section 92 empowers the Board to submit a proposal to the Government for the acquisition of a building inter alia where the Board is of the opinion that it is not capable of being repaired or rendered fit for habitation at reasonable expense and is dangerous or injurious to the health and safety of the inhabitants.

40. These considerations must be weighed and balanced with the need to provide conditions for dignified existence to those occupants who reside in Cessed A category buildings. The right to housing is a basic human right. Many of the Cessed A category structures are in urgent need of repair or replacement. Constructed with the aid of building patterns then in vogue, these buildings have suffered the ravages of nature and of human neglect. The saline conditions of Mumbai are a source of considerable erosion. Many of those buildings lack facilities as elementary as a self contained toilet attached to a tenement. Hence, the preservation of the balance of life warrants a balance between competing equalities. The impact of an additional population on the existing civic services is one facet of the impact on the quality of life. The other is the need to ensure dignified conditions for tenants of buildings constructed prior to September 1940. The balance is not easy to define but a balance has to be made on the basis of a considered understanding of all the facets of a complex problem.