MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday observed that a ground-reality report by a four-member panel prima facie indicates non-compliance with air pollution control civic guidelines at all the 36 sites surveyed. The court summoned civic chief Bhushan Gagrani and the member secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), directing them to remain personally present at 11 am on Tuesday.
“We have formed a prima-facie opinion that the Municipal Commissioner and the Member Secretary of the MPCB should personally explain the inaction on the part of the concerned officers of the MCGM and the MPCB,” said Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad. The bench also stated that stop work notices ought to be issued at the sites showing non-compliance
The panel said demolition activities in Bandra east at the government colony where the new Bombay HC complex is planned, were found to be “generating massive amounts of dust and debris which were scattered openly across premises with no barricades, wet coverings or dust suppression mechanisms in place.”
The panel also found “gas cylinders on pavement being used for cutting and sawing steel—in unenclosed spaces immediately adjacent to public areas.’’
Senior counsel Darius Khambata, the Amicus Curiae (friend of the court to assist), cited and read the findings from the report prepared by advocates Karan Bhosale, Namrata Vinod, Anand Mallya, and forest conservator Anita Patil. The report indicated that on-ground implementation of civic guidelines to curb air pollution was lacking, and compliance where seen was “cosmetic.” Senior counsel S U Kamdar for BMC sought the matter—a suo motu PIL to tackle the rising air pollution in Mumbai and neighbouring areas—be deferred by a few days to enable the municipal commissioner to read the report. The CJ-led bench orally said, “nothing doing…not even one day. We are summoning them tomorrow.”
The bench asked if the sites visited were compliant. Khambata said none were. Senior counsel Ashutosh Kumbhakoni for MPCB said action would be taken and was being contemplated. The CJ, dictating the order, then said, “We have been taken through some part of the report prepared by the Court-appointed Committee running into 74 pages.”
Khambata said that the report prepared by the Committee and the observations and findings demonstrate a complete lack of monitoring of the polluting sites, which were not adhering to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and MPCB guidelines. “We have also taken note of the fact that steps were taken by the authorities after this Court took suo motu cognizance of the poor air quality in Mumbai and the surrounding areas. The report dated December 15 was after the panel visited sites where AQI (Air Quality Index) was poor.
The bullet train project at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and an RMC plant and Metro Line 2B were visited and the panel said it found “across all three locations’’ a “recurring pattern of incomplete or inconsistent compliance’’ with BMC’s and MPCB’s air pollution guidelines. “The RMC plant showed the most serious non compliance,’’ it added.
At Mahape MPCB Air monitoring station in Navi Mumbai the condition of the station was found to be deeply alarming, reflecting systemic neflect and operational failure’’ the panel said. The outdoor air quality display was completely non-functional down since at least December11, 2025.’’
In south Mumbai, in the Fort, Cuffe Parade, and Colaba area, the panel found poor adherence to BMC’s guidelines at four construction and redevelopment sites. The issues involved were not minor lapses but fundamental shortcomings in basic dust control and site management measures, though there was significant scope for corrective action. The report said three of the four were “almost entirely non-compliant with the basic pollution control and safety measures” required under the BMC guidelines. At one site—Opel Constructions—an AQI monitor was installed, but its placement was on the ground floor of the 20-storey under-construction building. The remaining three sites—Kalpataru Chambers, DG Chamber, and Majestic Amdar Nivas—showed widespread and repeated breaches of the required norms, the report said. In the infrastructure projects like the bullet train and Metro, the panel found non-compliance
The compliance across 17 under-construction sites, three ready-mix cement plants, seven road sites, and five infra sites was more "reactive, rather than proactive," with compliance intensifying after the HC's suo motu PIL hearing following the recent spike in Mumbai's AQI. "Water sprinklers, fogging, and smog guns are deployed in a limited, ad hoc, or cosmetic manner and appear largely confined to areas where authorities claim clear jurisdiction," and vehicles carrying demolition waste had no tracking system, while road cleaning activities were "often spreading pollution" not suppressing it with no wetting measures, the panel said. It recommended “urgent action” to ensure complete implementation of existing guidelines, real-time monitoring, centralised data integration, differential standards by activity type, and accountability at every site, without which the AQI will deteriorate further and “public health risk will persist unabated.”
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Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, w...
Read MoreSwati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.
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