Liability for illegal work not absolved after flat is sold: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has held that a person who has done unauthorised construction to his house is liable for prosecution even after he has sold the house. The court refused to quash an FIR registered against Salim Furniturewala who constructed unauthorised extension in his flat in 2012. While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) received a complaint against him in 2012, an FIR was registered in 2015, by which time Furniturewala had already sold the flat to another person. Furniturewala had claimed that as he was not the owner anymore and the FIR should be quashed.

A division bench of justices R.M. Savant and Sandeep Shinde was hearing the criminal writ petition of Furniturewala seeking quashing of an FIR registered against him by Nagpada police station at the behest of BMC for violating section 53 (1) of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act, 1966. In his plea, Furniturewala claimed that he was wrongly named in the FIR as he was never the owner of the flat as it was in his wife’s name when he was in possession. He further claimed that as they had sold off the flat in 2013, he was not liable to be prosecuted.

The FIR was registered in 2015 against the Furniturewala based on a 2012 complaint received by the BMC for an illegal extension to his third floor flat when his wife was the owner. The BMC had carried out an inspection in 2014 and then issued a notice to Furniturewala as well as the current owner of the flat.

“Merely because the notice was not issued during the currency of the ownership of the petitioner’s wife and during the occupancy of the petitioner, it cannot be said that the petitioner herein can be absolved of the criminal liability,” said the bench.