HC gives 77-yr-old a home after 33 yrs in transit camps

MUMBAI: A 77-year-old woman will finally have a home of her own, after living for 33 years in transit camps. The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Mumbai Building Repair and Reconstruction Board to make an "exception'' and allot her a tenement of her choice at Mazagaon.
A division bench of Justices P B Majmudar and R M Savant heard a petition by Saira Begum Nisar Ahmed, who has lived in transit camps at Pratikha Nagar (Sion), Jogeshwari and now at Antop Hill (Wadala).Her tenement at Israil Mohalla, near Masjid Bunder, was demolished in 1978 and has not yet been reconstructed.
She also urged, through her advocate Ramesh Ramamurthy, that the board be directed to allot her a place in a locality where people of her community reside as she was affected by the 1993 riots and is apprehensive. She was allotted a place at Delisle Road, a Hindu-dominated locality.
At the last hearing, the court has asked Ramamurthy to identify alternative places. Ramamurthy submitted that there are 14 tenements at Infinity Apartment near the sales tax office and two at Gunpowder Road. "An exception will have to be carved out for the petitioner as a special case,'' said Justice Savant, dictating the order for the bench.
The judges directed the board to cancel the allotment after Saira Begum informed it that she is not interested in it. They said she will give her choice from a list advertized by the board among two places in Mazagaon. Also, if tenements are available, she should be "given preference in allotment, having regard to the antecedent facts". The judges clarified that their directions have been issued in the special facts and circumstances of the case and added that it will not operate as a precedent in future cases.