Summary
The Court transferred a Bombay High Court PIL concerning refuge areas and FSI to be heard with pending connected challenges. Occupant safety and the overlap of issues favoured coordinated, early adjudication. The existing interim restraint was maintained, with liberty to seek modification; the substantive planning-law questions were left undecided.
Issues
- Whether the connected refuge-area PIL should be transferred to the Supreme Court.
- Whether the High Court’s interim orders should be set aside at that stage.
Held
- The pending special-leave matters had a direct bearing on the later municipal order challenged in the PIL. Building safety concerned occupants and the public as well as developers; final, early resolution of overlapping issues served all parties. (¶¶ 18–21, 24)
- The Court expressly confined its observations to transfer and interim relief and expressed no opinion on the underlying merits. There was then no good ground to vacate the interim orders, but parties could seek alteration after transfer. (¶¶ 22, 25–26)
Result
Transfer petition allowed; PIL No. 17/2017 transferred for hearing with the connected pending SLPs. SLPs challenging interim orders dismissed, subject to liberty to seek their alteration, modification or variation.