MUMBAI: Supreme Court on Wednesday granted partial relief to BMC chief Ashwini Bhide by recalling a part of its order issued the day prior that directed freezing her and her personal staff’s Nov salaries for not clearing encroachments from a plot reserved for a BEST bus stand in Borivli East despite multiple directives. The relief came hours after BMC demolished all 27 encroaching structures.SC also withdrew the show-cause contempt notice issued to Bhide after BMC informed it that the requisite steps for compliance had been taken. It clarified it was not expressing any opinion at this stage on the extent of compliance, and directed Bhide to file a personal affidavit detailing the steps taken before the next hearing on Dec 8.The court, however, clarified that the portion of its order imposing Rs 5 lakh costs on BMC would remain unchanged and directed that the payment be made within the prescribed timeline.Prompted by SC’s criticism the previous day, BMC’s R-Central ward began the demolition drive on Wednesday morning, and by noon, 24 commercial units and three residential structures on the 3,400sqm plot near S V Road were cleared. Among the commercial establishments were an automobile garage, a tailoring shop and coaching classes. Around 70 civic personnel, along with police, oversaw the operation.SC had on Tuesday accused BMC of being “hand in glove” with encroachers for repeatedly failing to implement its orders, and had recorded a prima facie finding of wilful disobedience. It had on Aug 13, 2025, directed BMC to remove the encroachments and operationalise the BEST bus stand within three months. It reiterated the directions on Nov 13, and again on July 28 this year while granting the civic body three more months for compliance.The court’s Tuesday strictures left BMC officials embarrassed. At the civic headquarters, the law department was reprimanded over its failure to appropriately represent BMC and for not keeping senior bureaucrats informed about the hearing and developments in the litigation. Senior civic officials said BMC was likely to issue show-cause notices to the assistant municipal commissioner of R-Central ward and the law officer concerned over the mishandling of the case.BMC law committee member Siddharth Sharma termed the demolition a failure of the law department and the officials handling the litigation and sought an independent inquiry into whether officials had scrutinised the original intimation of disapproval, sanctioned plans, consent terms and commencement certificate, and obtained and examined the complete building proposal file before the matter reached SC.
