LI Network
Published on: January 16, 2024 at 12:22 IST
The Bombay High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by the Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority (MHADA), which sought relaxation of height restrictions for a proposed 40-floor building near Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).
Justices GS Patel and Kamal Khata of the Bombay High Court stated that aviation safety regulations should not be relaxed based on the identity of the developer, emphasizing that MHADA does not possess a legal or constitutional right to exceed prescribed height limits.
The court firmly rejected MHADA’s argument that civil aviation safety standards should not apply to its project simply because it is a public authority undertaking.
The judges expressed reluctance to entertain the notion of an oversized MHADA tower posing no danger to civil aviation. The proposed construction by MHADA included 560 tenements in a building with a height of 115.54 meters, approximately 40 floors, within a four-kilometer radius of CSMIA.
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) had communicated a maximum permissible height of 58.48 meters to MHADA, in accordance with internationally mandated aviation safety standards.
However, MHADA appealed this decision, and the Appellate Authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation permitted a height of 96.68 meters.
The Court noted that MHADA is not being singled out for height restrictions and emphasized that if relaxation is granted, it should apply uniformly to all applicants, including private developers. The Court criticized the filing of such a petition by a responsible public authority and ultimately rejected MHADA’s plea.
This development was part of case number Writ Petition (L) No. 161 of 2023, titled Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority v. Airport Authority of India & Anr.