MUMBAI, July 10 -- The Bombay High Court last week struck down notices issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ordering the residents of a building in Borivali's IC Colony to vacate their homes because it was dangerously dilapidated. A division bench of acting chief justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Gautam Ankhad noted that the building, Angella Villa, had been repaired after the demolition notices were issued in September 2025, and there was now "no imminent threat to life or property". The bench also restrained the civic body from disconnecting the building's electricity or water supply. Seven residents of the building had approached the high court after the BMC issued them notices stating that its technical advisory committee (TAC) had categorised their building as C-1 (dangerously dilapidated). The civic body had ordered the residents to vacate their homes so that the building could be demolished. During the hearing, the residents' counsel, advocate Vishal Kanade, pointed out that the notices were issued despite two structural audit reports from August 2023 and April 2025, both of which categorised the building as a C-2B structure, requiring repairs rather than demolition. Kanade added that the tenants got the building repaired themselves after repeated requests to their landlords went unanswered. In July 2025, the BMC informed the tenants that the matter had been referred to the TAC due to certain "inconsistencies" in the structural audit reports they had submitted. The tenants informed the BMC that the repair work had already started, but the civic body said the TAC had classified the building as a C-1 structure and required it to be immediately evacuated. The petitioners said they repeatedly sought a copy of the TAC's report, but it was not furnished to them. Eventually, on June 11 this year, the BMC allegedly disconnected the building's water supply. The residents also said the repair work was complete, and the building is now habitable and no longer dilapidated. The court accepted the tenants' arguments and struck down the BMC's notices. "It is difficult to appreciate why the TAC report, which formed the very basis of the impugned action, was withheld from the petitioners despite their repeated requests," the bench said. "Denial of the report deprived the petitioners of an effective opportunity to respond to the findings on which the drastic action was founded," it added. The bench said the photographs submitted by the petitioners demonstrate that the building is now in a substantially different condition from that considered by the TAC. The BMC had sent the evacuation notices on the premise that the building was in a dangerous and ruinous condition, warranting immediate demolition, but "that factual foundation no longer survives, and there does not appear to be any imminent danger to life or property," the judges said, while striking down the notices....