Mumbai, November 3: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to the Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), holding that he is prima facie guilty of wilful breach and disobedience of the court's time-bound directions for removing encroachments from land earmarked for a BEST bus stand in Borivali, Mumbai, Live Law and Bar and Bench reported.
Source: Live Law
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed the BMC's application seeking more time to pass eviction orders against the occupants, imposed costs of Rs 5 lakh on the municipal body, and restrained the BMC and the Maharashtra government from releasing any monthly salary to the Commissioner or his personal staff until the court's directions are complied with. Justice Bagchi told the civic body's counsel that the Commissioner would not draw a salary till December 1, 2026, and should comply before that.
Source: Bar and Bench
"We are prima facie satisfied that the Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai is guilty of committing contempt and is guilty of wilful breach and disobedience of the time bound directions that we have issued on two occasions in orders dated 13th November 2025 and 28th July 2026. Let him show cause as to why appropriate action will not be taken against him," the court ordered, as reported by Live Law.
A bus stand plot stuck for over two decades
The dispute concerns about 5,800 square metres of land in Borivali, of which 3,400 square metres were earmarked for a BEST bus stand and an administrative building. Under consent terms recorded on October 31, 2002, the Municipal Corporation was to cooperate with the developer, Parag Construction, in removing unauthorised occupants. Earlier contempt proceedings were disposed of in January 2012 after 15 structures occupied by 13 unauthorised occupants were demolished, but the developer later alleged that encroachments still obstruct the project.
On August 13, 2025, the Supreme Court directed Parag Construction to hand over vacant possession of the 3,400 square metres earmarked for the bus stand to the Corporation, which was to complete the remaining construction and make the facility functional within three months of taking possession, and separately ordered the BMC to continue efforts to remove encroachments in and around the land in accordance with law. On November 13, 2025, the court expressed prima facie concern that the BMC was trying to evade that responsibility and directed the Commissioner to file a personal affidavit on the occupants and the eviction notices. On July 28, 2026, it directed the Corporation to complete the work and remove the encroachments within three months, clarifying that civil court proceedings would not prevent the removal since the civil court had imposed no interim stay.
Court suspects collusion; BMC cites hearing process
During Tuesday's hearing, the bench strongly criticised the delay. The CJI suggested that municipal officers were colluding with the encroachers and asked whether they were taking 'hafta' (monthly protection money) from them — remarks made during the hearing, reported by Live Law. The court also questioned the explanation in the BMC's extension application that hearings were delayed because an officer required English translations of Marathi documents, with Justice Bagchi pointing to the affidavit filed by Dr Praful Dinesh Tambe and asking whether it was to be believed that he did not know Marathi.
Appearing for the BMC, Senior Advocate R. P. Bhatt submitted that the civic body had issued show-cause notices to the occupants and heard them twice, that the occupants had filed documents, and that a final order on the notices was yet to be passed. He said the civil court had directed the authorities not to evict the occupants without hearing them and had kept the matter for November 26 to monitor compliance. The Supreme Court rejected the submission and refused any extension, with the CJI remarking that the officers should 'sit in the midnight and pass the order'.
The Commissioner must respond to the contempt show-cause notice, and no salary is to be released to the Commissioner or his personal staff until the court's directions are complied with. The BMC must now pass its eviction orders on the Borivali occupants without any further extension from the Supreme Court.
The order puts one of India's richest municipal bodies under direct personal pressure at the top: the salary freeze applies to the Commissioner personally, and the contempt notice means he must explain himself to the Supreme Court while the long-delayed Borivali bus stand land remains to be cleared.