Seven years after the country authorities put into effect a revised lease policy wherein leases on its lands had been brought on par with market charges, 12 housing societies at Malabar Hill have moved the Bombay High Court insisting they’ll keep paying the annual rent of Rs 7 fixed for the reason that beyond 99 years in opposition to the government’s call for of around Rs 20 lakh in line with society. Each of these societies additionally owes the country government over Rs 1 crore towards top-notch hire arrears when you consider that 2012 while the revised rent policy was carried out.
The societies – Sujata CHS, Pavlova, Skylark, Paras, Avillion, Nishant, New Cosmopolitan, Manhar Oak, Little Gibbs, Monte, New Paradise, and New Cosmopolitan CHS Ltd – are positioned in a couple of lanes abutting the LD Ruparel Cross Marg. Each condominium in these societies prices extra than Rs 10 crore, whilst a one BHK flat anywhere on Malabar Hill commands a month-to-month hire of as a minimum Rs sixty-five,000.
Following notices by means of City Collector Shivajirao Jondhale to pay up or vacate the plots, the societies have demanded that their lease agreements be renewed for any other ninety-nine years, that too on an annual hire of Rs 7.
Residents of these societies are amongst tenants in ratings of homes in Mumbai leased at some point of the British Raj at throwaway rents, who continue to pay the equal amount a long time after independence.
Amid demands that these tenants be made to pay the cutting-edge market rates (former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi had filed a public hobby litigation that the authorities at ease marketplace hire for its property), the country government underneath Prithviraj Chavan added a revised hire coverage in October 2012 in which it multiplied the yearly lease to 2 in step with cent of 25 percent of the geared up reckoner prices. As in step with the revised coverage, plots can handiest be leased for not extra than 30 years.
According to this coverage, a leaseholder of a 570 square property in Colaba, who was paying Rs 17 a year in hire, will need to pay simply over Rs three lakh. Similarly, the lease on a 3,000 square assets in Colaba improved from Rs seventy-five 12 months to Rs 33 lakh.
Following an obvious uproar from tenants residing in such properties and a spate of court docket cases, the kingdom government, in addition, revised the rent to at least one percent of 25 in line with cent of the plot’s geared up reckoner fee final April, however a central authority resolution to this impact hasn’t been issued.
Jondhale advised Mumbai Mirror that he wasn’t disturbing anything extra from the 12 societies. “Those residing in those societies are living in flats worth Rs 12 crore every and is fighting over quantities which they can effortlessly manage to pay for. Residents of Byculla and Mazgaon have with ease agreed to pay the revised rents,” he stated.
The citizens have an extraordinary story to relate. Pankaj Shah, chairman of Pavlova CHS, stated his society’s hire changed into renewed in 1982. “The settlement definitely stated that each one term and situations will continue to be identical. Suddenly in 2012, the government woke up and stated this is wrong, now pay us lakhs of rupees in lease and arrears. The petitions of all 12 societies can be heard collectively in the last week of April,” he said.
Satish Choksi, treasurer of Avillion CHS, stated none of the dozen societies will pay up until the courtroom promises its verdict. “The hire of our society will expire most effective in 2081. At this juncture, we will no longer pay whatever greater,” he stated.
