India, Aug. 16 -- In a little over 10 days, the fate of 27 families residing between 17th and 34th floors of the Willingdon View Cooperative Housing Society (CHS), in Tardeo, will be sealed. The residents are racing against time to get their fire safety certificate from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), to avoid eviction.

On August 1, the Supreme Court (SC) had declined to interfere with the Bombay High Court's (HC) directive to evict residents from these floors which neither have Occupancy Certificate (OC) nor a fire department No Objection Certificate (NOC), on August 27. Many have lived here for over a decade.

The building, constructed in 2010, has part-OC and no NOC for fire safety. The deadline for eviction incidentally...