SC to hear plea by Campa Cola society residents post eviction

The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a plea filed by the residents of unauthorised flats in Mumbai's Campa Cola housing society who are set to be evicted by Saturday.

A bench comprising justices Jagdish Singh Khehar and C Nagappan today agreed to hear the matter on Tuesday after senior counsel Vikas Singh told the apex court that it was a human problem involving 40 families being rendered homeless.

The apex court, however, did not stay its earlier order to evict of occupants of the 40 ''unauthorised'' flats by 31 May.

The Mumbai municipality on Monday started serving eviction notices to about 96 families occupying illegal flats at the Campa Cola compound. They have been told to hand over the keys to their flats between 29 May and 2 June.

The residential complex in the upmarket South Mumbai was built in the 1980s. The builders had permission to build only five floors, but constructed 35 floors without the requisite permission, rendering 96 flats illegal.

Since 2008, the corporation has been engaged in a long-drawn legal battle over the illegality of 35 floors spread across seven buildings in the Campa Cola compound,

The municipality served demolition notices in 2005 which the residents challenged in court. The matter reached the Supreme Court, which ordered that the illegal flats be vacated by 11 November. The Supreme Court stayed the demolition the day after and gave them time till 31 May to find solutions.

''There is absolutely no way that these flats can be regularised. They have to be demolished,'' said an official from the municipal body.

The local police station has also served notices asking the residents to avoid any resistance or face action.

Residents are now pinning hope on the new NDA government at the centre to save them from certain eviction.