Mumbai: In a latest development wherein hundreds of flat buyers were duped of Rs2,000 crore by a developer, the Bombay High Court recently ordered the Maharashtra government’s home department to specify if it has any policy to ‘prioritise’ documents for verification by the chief state examiner.
The move follows when the authorities informed the bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Riyaz Chagla that they treat documents pertaining to murder and other crimes as a ‘priority.’
The bench was dealing with a petition by a group of tenants from Bandra and Andheri, who have been allegedly cheated by a developer, Kamla Real Estate Hub Private Limited.
Notably, the firm has duped original tenants and also private purchasers of Rs2,000 crore. Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan has also been duped by the same builder to the tune of Rs1.5 crore. He was promised a flat in a Juhu highrise, however, he never got a unit.
Pursuant to earlier orders, the additional state examiner of documents, an authority of the government, which verifies the authenticity of documents, was present before the court.
Asked if it has crosschecked the genuineness of the part Occupancy Certificate (OC), issued by the developer firm to flat purchasers, the authority said it could not ascertain so. The negative answer irked the bench as the BMC had sent this OC to the authority, way back in 2018 to check if it was fabricated.
“The authority stated he did not examine the document in the last two years and failed to submit his report, since he did not have adequate staff in his office,” the bench noted. The bench further sought to know if the authority cross-checked the authenticity of any documents after the OC in question was submitted to it.
“The officer stated that his office was asked to give priority to the documents submitted in matters involving offences like domestic violence, murder etc,” the judges noted.
“From his answer we gather an impression that a fraud involving Rs2,000 crore in which the developers have fabricated the part OC and based on it, have collected crores of rupees and put the innocent tenants and flat purchasers in occupation of the flats, who have now received demolition notices from BMC, is not required to be given any priority by the authorities,” Justice Kathawalla said.
Accordingly, the bench asked the officer to specify if there is a written policy or circular for prioritising such documents for verification. However, there was no positive response.
An irked Justice Kathawalla said, “A copy of this order shall therefore be forwarded to the secretary, home department, who shall file his affidavit confirming whether the statements made before this court by the officer are correct.”
“We also want to know what steps the home ministry intends to take to clear the backlog of documents pending in the office of the examiner of documents,” the bench added.
