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Bombay HC paves way for Nair Hospital extension, rebukes BMC – India Today

The Bombay High Court paved the way for the Nair Hospital extension and rebuked the BMC officials for a lackadaisical approach.

Mumbai,UPDATED: Oct 13, 2022 02:28 IST

The bombay high court

The Bombay High Court paved the way for the Nair Hospital extension.

By Vidya : In scathing remarks against officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Bombay High Court said, “In a city like Mumbai, where space comes at a premium, the sheer apathy on the part of the BMC to get back the premises and hand it over to Nair hospital is appalling.”

The court has asked the developer to vacate the premises in Mumbai within one month.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik was appalled at the BMC officials’ apathy towards getting land from a developer who had usurped a property meant to extend a civic hospital.

The land, which a developer usurped for the last 14 years, belonged to the municipal corporation and was meant for an expansion of the BL Nair hospital in Mumbai Central.

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“Judicial notice can be taken of the sheer lack of space and hardship faced by the patients, their family members, relatives, the doctors and the staff in municipal hospitals,” the bench held.

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“Public health is one of the most important functions to be discharged by the BMC. Law is well settled that in the exercise of writ jurisdiction, we can test the decision-making process and not the decision itself,” the bench added.

“We are saddened to note that instead of safeguarding the public interest, the then officials of the BMC have all gone out of the way to promote the private interest of the Developer,” the bench highlighted.

“All this at the cost of the citizens for whom the State government acquired the land at a prime location in Mumbai to cater for the health and medical needs,” the bench further said.

“We hope and trust that the BMC does not propose to rehabilitate the Developer, a private developer who benefited so long from the unwarranted action on the part of the BMC,” the bench quipped.

“We are amazed at the insensitivity displayed in the present case as we find that one of the officers of the BMC had the audacity to ask the dean of Nair Hospital why the hospital needs the Dharmashala,” the bench said.

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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/bombay-high-court-paves-way-nair-hospital-extension-rebukes-bmc-2284666-2022-10-13