High Court allows Thane, Pune civic bodies to issue OC for new

The Bombay High Court today vacated its order prohibiting the Thane and Pune civic bodies from issuing occupation and commencement certificates to new constructions in some areas of the two cities over the issue of inadequate water supply in residential colonies there.

In May this year, the high court had restricted the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) not to issue occupation certificate (OC) and commencement certificate (CC) to any new construction in Thane's Ghodbunder Road area, and the Pune corporation was prohibited from granting the same to constructions in Balewadi and Baner areas.

The restriction order was imposed after two public interest litigations were filed claiming abrupt water cuts to various areas along the Ghodbunder Road, Baner and Balewadi had become a routine exercise and that the residents were forced to buy water from private water tanker suppliers.

A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N M Jamdar today vacated the restriction and said, "If this restriction continues then people who have purchased flats in these areas would face difficulty. Therefore, we permit the two local authorities (Thane Municipal Corporation and Pune Municipal Corporation) to go ahead with the issuance of OC and CC."

The court, however, ordered for a committee to be set up in each district which would meet once in two months to redress grievances pertaining to domestic water supply.

"Let us see how this committee works. The committee shall report to us from time-to-time. We cannot totally shut our eyes or opine that there is no water supply problem at all.

There is bound to be water supply problem when there are so many constructions coming up," the court observed.

-PTI