MUMBAI FAMILY GETS BACK flat after 48-year legal battle

MUMBAI: A Mumbai family that had been fighting a legal battle for 48 years to regain possession of their one-room flat they had rented out has got justice after the Bombay High Court asked the tenants to vacate the house.

City resident Navinchandra Nanji, who died while his plea was pending in court, and his legal heirs had been running from pillar to post to get relief. Their efforts finally bore fruit when a single bench of the HC ordered last week that their tenants vacate the said premises in Sewri area, rented out in 1967, “within the next 12 weeks.”

Justice G S Kulkarni, who was hearing the case, while issuing the eviction order also lamented the sluggish pace of the judicial system.

“It is quite a wrench for a conscious judicial mind to note that in this case, a suit for eviction was instituted about 48 years back. Soon the respondents would have celebrated the golden jubilee of the litigation. While the petitioners await the fruits of the litigation, the respondent tenant has been an undeserving beneficiary of the systemic delay in the judicial process.”

As per the plea, Nanji first moved the lower court in 1969 after his tenant of two years, Jivraj Bhanji, refused to pay heed to the eviction notice served to him on the ground that he had illegally made a permanent alteration in the said flat.