'Injustice anywhere should be struck down': Supreme Court directs Maharashtra police department to vacate flats occupied since 1940

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said injustice, whenever and wherever it takes place, should be struck down as an anathema to the rule of law and the provisions of the Constitution, as it directed the Maharashtra police department to hand over vacant possession of two flats in South Mumbai, occupied since 1940 and without paying paltry rent for 18 years.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said the constitutional powers vested in the high court or the Supreme Court cannot be fettered by any alternative remedy available to the party concerned.

"The rule of exclusion of writ jurisdiction by availability of an alternative remedy is a rule of discretion and not one of compulsion. There can be many contingencies in which the High Court may be justified in exercising its writ jurisdiction inspite of availability of an alternative remedy," the bench said.

In a recent order, the court allowed a plea by Neha Chandrakant Shroff and another against the Bombay High Court's April 30, 2024 order.

The high court had rejected their writ petition for release of two flats.

"We are happy that we have been able to do justice with the appellants who have been frantically trying to get back their property (two flats) in question which the State occupied way back in the year 1940 without any written order requisitioning the two flats for temporary use by the Police authorities or any lease deed in writing," the bench said.

"The High Court should have kept the year in mind i.e. 1940. This country was ruled by the Britishers. The country was fighting hard to seek independence from the Britishers. Bombay in the year 1940 was altogether different," the court said.

The bench also pointed out, at the relevant point of time, the department perhaps might have persuaded the appellants or their predecessors in title to part with the possession of the two flats for the police department.

"However, it has been now 84 years that the police department has been in occupation and use of the two flats. Look at the conduct of the Department. We are informed that past eighteen years even rent has not been paid," the bench said.

At the moment, to ask the appellants to file a suit and recover the possession would be like adding insult to the injury, the bench added.

"At this point of time, if the appellants are asked to institute a suit, we wonder how many years it would take by the time the litigation would come to an end if at all it reaches upto the highest Court of the country. These are the hard facts, the High Courts are expected to keep in mind in today’s times," the bench said.

The court opined, this is one of those cases wherein the high court should have readily exercised its writ jurisdiction.

The court, which directed for personal presence of Nitin Pawar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Office of the Commissioner of Police (Headquarter), Mumbai, to file an undertaking on oath within one week, declaring that the department would hand over vacant and peaceful possession of the two flats in question definitely to the appellants within a period of four months.