The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has partially demolished unauthorised portions of a bungalow in Mumbai's Juhu area linked to Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn, after the civic body found that structural alterations were being carried out on the property without municipal permissions, officials said. The story broke in the media on Saturday, October 17, 2026.
Civic personnel from the BMC's K/West Ward office, armed with hammers, knocked down unauthorised Siporex block walls at the property on October 12, according to reports. The civic body also shared photographs of the demolition alongside copies of the notices it had issued to the property's owners in the preceding weeks.
The property in question is a bungalow of approximately 7,802 square feet located in the Kapole Co-operative Housing Society on N S Road, in the JVPD Scheme area of Juhu, one of Mumbai's most high-profile western suburbs. The bungalow is reportedly jointly owned by the actor and his mother, Veena Devgn.
Notably, the BMC's notices and the speaking order issued by the ward office do not name the actor or his mother; ownership details were established separately through property records.
The action follows a sequence of official steps that began more than a month earlier. On September 10, 2026, the BMC issued a stop-work notice to the property under Section 354A of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, directing that the allegedly unauthorised work be halted and giving the owners 24 hours to produce the relevant permissions. The notice warned that the unauthorised portions would be removed at the owners' risk and cost if permissions were not furnished.
The owners responded to the notice on September 15. However, the K/West Ward office rejected the reply in a speaking order dated October 6, effectively upholding the civic body's case that the construction lacked sanction. The demolition was carried out six days later, on October 12.
What exactly was found? According to the civic body's findings, the property had seen internal alterations, the erection of partition walls, window modifications and other structural work, all allegedly undertaken without the necessary municipal permissions. The underlying change of use, officials believe, was the conversion of the residence into a commercial salon and spa.
That commercial angle has a documented commercial trail. The property was leased for five years to Florian Hurel Salon Private Limited in a deal valued at approximately Rs 10.61 crore in total — working out to about Rs 16 lakh per month in the first year, rising by five per cent annually. The tenant is reported to have begun structural changes to the premises to suit the salon's requirements, and it is these changes that the BMC has classified as unauthorised.
The trigger for the civic scrutiny was a complaint from the Kapole Co-operative Housing Society itself. The society objected to the commercial use of a residential bungalow, raising concerns about parking pressure, increased traffic, security implications and noise on the society's narrow internal roads. Following the complaint, the BMC's Building and Factory Department inspected the premises.
Local corporator Sudha Singh said the department found that permission for the proposed commercial use of the property had not been produced.
The case sits at the intersection of two recurring Mumbai flashpoints: the conversion of high-value residential properties to commercial use, and the enforcement of building permissions in the city's western suburbs, where some of the country's most expensive real estate is concentrated. Juhu, home to a dense cluster of film-industry personalities, has seen several such enforcement actions over the years, though few involving properties linked to stars of Devgn's stature.
So far, there has been no detailed on-record response from the actor's side to the demolition. One report, in the Hindustan Times, noted that the Devgn family had sought four weeks to respond to the civic body's notice — a request that evidently did not stop the enforcement action. Separately, the Gujarat Samachar reported that Devgn's side maintained that the necessary permissions had been obtained.
That claim is at the level of a media report rather than an on-record statement, and the BMC's speaking order of October 6 — which rejected the owners' September 15 reply — suggests the civic body was not persuaded.
The BMC's action is part of a broader pattern of the civic body moving against unauthorised constructions across the city, including in upscale neighbourhoods. Under Section 354A of the MMC Act, the corporation has the power to issue stop-work notices and to remove unauthorised works where permissions are not produced within the stipulated time.
The demolition at the Juhu bungalow, complete with photographic documentation released by the ward office, appears designed to signal that the enforcement drive spares no address.
For the residents of the Kapole Co-operative Housing Society, whose complaint set the process in motion, the demolition is a vindication of their objections to the commercial conversion. For the property's owners and tenant, the episode raises questions about the due diligence around the lease and the renovation work — and whether the permissions dispute will now move to the courts or the appellate forums available under the municipal law.
The legal machinery behind the action is worth understanding. Section 354A of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, empowers the municipal commissioner — acting through the ward offices — to issue stop-work notices where construction is being carried out in contravention of the Act's provisions, and to direct the removal of such work if the person concerned fails to show sufficient cause within the stipulated period.
The provision is one of the BMC's most frequently invoked enforcement tools, and its use against high-value properties in the western suburbs has become increasingly visible as the corporation steps up its anti-encroachment and unauthorised-construction drives.
The Juhu case also highlights a tension that plays out repeatedly across Mumbai's premium neighbourhoods: the conversion of sprawling residential bungalows into commercial establishments.
As land values in areas like Juhu, Bandra and Andheri have soared, residential properties — particularly large bungalows held by long-time owners — have become attractive targets for commercial leasing, with salons, clinics, restaurants and offices offering rental yields far above residential rates. Housing societies, however, frequently resist such conversions, citing strain on shared infrastructure, parking, security and the character of residential precincts.
The Kapole Co-operative Housing Society's complaint — flagging parking, traffic, security and noise concerns on narrow internal roads — follows a familiar script, and the BMC's response shows how seriously the corporation takes society-level objections when they are backed by inspection findings.
As of Saturday, the BMC had not indicated whether further action — such as prosecution or recovery of demolition costs — would follow. The story is likely to develop as the parties respond.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and Hindustan Times.)