India, March 21 -- The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the closure of Growel's 101 mall at Kandivali East, which was allegedly built and operated without the necessary environmental clearances. Criticising the petitioner, Grauer and Weil (India) Limited, for challenging the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board's order of March 5, 2024, to close the mall, the court ruled that commercial interests could not override legal and environmental obligations.

Grauer and Weil (India) Limited's advocate Ayush Agarwal submitted that despite the company's failure to obtain environmental clearance, closure directions should not have been issued since the construction had been applied for under some amnesty scheme in 2016 which was still pending...