Bombay HC directs civic chief to take final decision on nod for proposed floating hotel in South Mumbai

The Bombay High Court has directed the city civic chief to take a final decision within eight weeks on grant of permission for the construction of a floating hotel, Floatel, proposed two nautical miles away from the shoreline in south Mumbai.

A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and M W Chandwani in its judgement of January 23 quashed a May 2017 decision taken by a three-member committee refusing permission for the project, noting it was part of the Marine Drive promenade.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Rashmi Developments Pvt Ltd challenging the committee’s decision. The high court in its order said prima facie the floating hotel and its related infrastructure was not part of the Marine Drive.

The matter is remanded back to the respondent 1 (city civic body) with a direction to the Commissioner of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to take a decision first on whether he has exclusive jurisdiction in the matter, the HC said.

If the commissioner finds that he has jurisdiction, then he shall consider the petitioner’s application for grant of necessary permission in accordance with law and, if required, the commissioner may call for necessary NOCs from the authorities concerned, it said.

The court said if the commissioner has no exclusive jurisdiction then he shall refer the petitioner’s application to the three-member committee once again for due consideration and appropriate recommendation.

The petitioner’s contention was that none of these four parts of the project would be situated anywhere near or on the Marine Drive promenade and that they would be situated beyond a point from the end of the Marine Drive.

It said the parking area of the proposed project comprising about 5,000 square metres belongs to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the said land has been already allotted to the petitioner company.

The BMC commissioner would have to first see if he has exclusive jurisdiction to decide the petitioner’s application for grant of No Objection Certificate (NOC) or not, the HC said.

If he decides that he has such jurisdiction in the matter, he would have to go ahead to consider the application of the petitioner on its own merits. However, if the commissioner comes to the conclusion that he has no exclusive jurisdiction in the matter, he would have to act upon the recommendation of the three-member committee, the court said.