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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing to send a fresh recommendation to the state government on granting heritage status to Savarkar Sadan in Dadar, following a directive from the Bombay High Court. This development comes after it was revealed that earlier files related to the 2010 heritage tag proposal were destroyed in the 2012 Mantralaya fire. A PIL filed by Abhinav Bharat Congress raised concerns about possible redevelopment and the delay in heritage notification. The court has now stayed any construction on the site and has sought an affidavit from the civic body.
The BMC has informed the Bombay High Court that its Heritage Conservation Committee has recently held a meeting and will soon forward a fresh proposal to the state government regarding the heritage status of Savarkar Sadan, the former residence of freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar located in Dadar. Advertisement
The matter came up for hearing in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed by Pankaj Phadnis, trustee of Abhinav Bharat Congress, who claimed that a decision on declaring the structure a heritage site had been pending for over a decade. He had earlier submitted that the state had not acted on a final recommendation made by the BMC in 2010, based on the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee's suggestion to assign it a Grade II-A heritage tag.
The state government, however, informed the court that all relevant records, including the BMC's 2010 recommendation, were destroyed in the 2012 Mantralaya fire. As no backup copies or files were available, the heritage proposal process had to be restarted.
A bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Sandeep Marne directed the BMC to file an affidavit detailing the current status. The court also instructed that no redevelopment activity should be carried out on the Savarkar Sadan premises until further orders, maintaining a status quo on the property.
Savarkar Sadan, built in 1938 on a 400-square-metre plot, was not only Savarkar's home but also a political hub during pre- and post-Independence India. Notably, leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose visited the house, and Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte met Savarkar there before the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, the original two-storey house was redeveloped to add three more floors using Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). The building remained in the possession of Savarkar's descendants until recently. The PIL was filed after reports emerged of potential redevelopment and partial sale of the property.
Despite earlier court directions in 2008-09 to expedite the listing, and BMC's final nod in 2010, no official government notification was ever issued, and the matter remained unresolved across successive governments.
Now, with the heritage committee reconvened and the fresh recommendation under process, the matter is expected to move forward. The state is likely to take a final call based on BMC's upcoming submission.
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