Bombay HC raps ‘unprepared’ civic counsels

Mumbai: Coming down heavily on the BMC for sending ‘unprepared’ counsels to appear for important cases, the Bombay high court has directed assistant municipal commissioners of the civic corporation to be present in court on Thursday to explain their failure to brief counsels and comply with previous orders of the court.

The court got miffed in a case wherein an order restraining the civic body from demolishing slums at Kalina was violated. When the BMC counsel said she was unaware as to why the order was violated, the judge chided her and asked all officers connected with the demolition to be present in court. The judge also warned the BMC officials that a repeat of such excesses would land them in jail.

A division bench comprising judges B. R. Gavai and M. S. Karnik was hearing a contempt petition filed by the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Nagar Rahiwasi Sangh, a hamlet consisting of more than 250 huts at Kalina, complaining that the BMC violated a stay order, restraining it from demolishing the huts before the slum dwellers were rehabilitated.  Despite the stay, BMC had already demolished 15 huts.

When the court asked the BMC counsel Vandana Mahdik as to why the demolition was carried out despite the stay, she said she needed time to find out from the concerned officers. As Mahadik had given a similar reply earlier in the day during the hearing of a writ, the judge was irritated. “What is the point of you coming without reading the brief? You do not know anything and seek time,” said Judge Gavai. The bench directed Mahadik to ask the civic body officials responsible for assigning cases to counsels to be present in court and kept the hearing for Thursday.