PIL against Hema on Versova land disposed of
In a breather to former Bollywood actress and Member of Parliament Hema Malini, the Bombay High Court on Friday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against her, seeking cancellation of the allotment of land by the state government.
The state’s BJP-led government had in December last year allotted to her a prime Versova plot of around 2,000 sq metres at a throwaway price of Rs70,000. She was given the land to set up her dance academy.
The decision of the government had, however, drawn flak following which this petition was filed by journalist-turned-activist Ketan Tirodkar.
Terming the allotment “arbitrary” and citing numerous judgments of various High Courts and the Supreme Court, Tirodkar had sought cancellation of the said allotment.
It must be noted that the apex court as well as various HC’s have many a times held that public property cannot be allotted by the government without issuing an advertisement inviting applications from potential buyers.
On Friday, the matter was heard by a division bench presided over by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Mahesh Sonak.
Appearing for Tirodkar, counsel Sadhna Kumar urged the bench to tag this civil petition to another criminal petition filed against Hema Malini (for the same issue) which has sought prosecution of the BJP MP.
It must be noted that the criminal petition is still pending before the High Court. Countering Kumar, government pleader Priya-bhushan Kakade informed the bench that the actress had refused to accept the said land.
“My statement can be taken on record, that the respondent (Malini) has refused to accept the allotted land,” Kakade said.
Taking Kakade’s statement on record, Chief Justice Chellur said, “Since the respondent (Malini) has refused to accept the allotted land, nothing survives in the petition now as the main prayer of the petitioner is to cancel the allotment. We, however, grant liberty to the petitioner to approach this court if he learns that the respondent still has been allotted the said land.”
Accordingly, the petition was disposed of.