The Bombay High Court directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday not to take any coercive action against veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan in a case related to the acquisition of a part of their Juhu property for extending the road in the area.
Last year on May 22, the BMC had sent a letter to the Mumbai suburban district collector asking him to undertake “appropriate action on measurement and demarcation” of the Sant Dnyaneshwar Marg, on which the actors’ bungalow ‘Prateeksha’ is located.
“If this road is widened, it will help ease the traffic congestion there and provide relief to the people,” read the BMC letter.
During a previous hearing on February 17, the court had also asked the BMC to consider Bachchan’s additional representation in the court in the matter within six weeks from the day. It also said that personal hearings can be granted in case of requirement by the Commissioner or the parties to the case while it asked the civic body to not take any coercive action against the couple till three weeks following their representation is decided by the BMC.
While hearing the actor duo’s plea on Wednesday, the court was informed that the petition was seeking directions to hear them and decide their February 17 representation against the acquisition of a portion of their plot.
In the plea filed by the Bachchans, they also challenged the notices that the BMC had issued to them in April 2017 mentioning the civic body will take possession of parts of the plot along with wall and structures as it falls within the regular street line.
Further, the plea pointed that the representatives they had appointed initially to attend to the BMC office, told its officials that it would more be convenient and easier for the civic authority to widen the street on the opposite side of the plots in question.
With no action taken in the past four years, they assumed that the notices issued were dropped and hence they did not submit any further formal objection to the authority, they said.
It was only in the last month that the BMC officials orally informed the couple regarding their plan of implementing the notices issued earlier and taking possession of the parts of the plot for widening the road.
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In the plea filed by the Bachchans, they sought to quash and set aside the notices issued to them. The plea mentioned that as per the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, the building structures on the said plot cannot be demolished. It further stated that the notices issued are inconsistent with safeguards under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and it must be set aside.
Showing “disparity in action”, the plea also pointed that neither the notices were not issued to other holders of the plots on the same side of the road nor was any action taken for widening the road.
The plea further sought a perpetual injunction against the BMC while restraining it from enforcing the notices or taking any action. The court disposed of the plea stating that the Commissioner will consider the representations.