BMC Takes Action Against Grauer & Weil for Operating Growel’s 101 Mall Without Occupation Certificate | FPJ
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has initiated a process to prosecute Growel’s 101 Mall located in Kandivali (E) and its six occupants over non-compliance of occupation certificate (OC) rules.
The BMC has finally stepped up to take action against the Growel’s 101 Mall against its violations, which have been earlier reported by The Free Press Journal. The civic body’s Building Proposals (BP) department has initiated the process to file a prosecution complaint against the mall and six occupants for illegally operating from the mall’s A wing without an OC.
On January 27, the deputy chief engineer of BP had issued eviction notices to six licensees including Croma, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, Grauer & Weil India Ltd (the mall’s parent company), Fun O Kids, Home Town and Mobitech Creations Pvt Ltd.
As they failed to vacate the premises, the BMC initiated the process to prosecute the mall and the businesses. The BP department has submitted the report to BMC’s legal department, which will file a prosecution complaint against the violators, sources have revealed.
“After they failed to vacate the premises and continued their business from the illegal building, an engineer visited the site and gathered proof, which will be used against the violators for prosecution. After scrutiny, the legal department will file the complaint for failure to obtain OC to occupy a building and for trading without permission,” said an official with the BMC.
In November 2024, Kandivali’s Lokhandwala Residents’ Association (LRA) founder and social activist Shishir Vivekanand Shetty had served a legal notice to the chief minister, BMC commissioner and other civic officials for their failure to act against the mall’s violations. The legal notice highlighted the BMC’s failure to take over the reserved plot from the mall, illegal construction, diversion of a major nullah, non-compliance of environment clearance and lack of OC.
In August 2021, member of legislative council Pravin Darekar, the then leader of opposition in Maharashtra assembly, wrote to the BMC highlighting the mall’s violation of OC rules. Following his complaint, the BMC had issued notice to the mall to vacate the premises, which was not complied by the mall, forcing the BMC to initiate prosecution process.
However, the assistant law officer of the R/South ward had refused to go ahead with prosecution citing that the time limit to file prosecution has exceeded the time limit of 90 days. In 2022, the BMC had again issued notice to the mall to vacate the premises, which was not complied to but the prosecution process was never initiated.
The mall has been shut down from March 21 following an order by the Bombay High Court over failure to obtain environmental clearance.
