Thackeray memorial: Tough HC queries

After vehement opposition of non-ruling parties and activists to the Thackeray memorial in Mayor’s bungalow, now the Bombay High Court has put the Maharashtra government and the BMC to task, posing some hard questions and asking the authorities to clarify their stand within two weeks.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Rajesh Ketkar were surprised to hear that the BMC has leased out the prime plot of Mayor’s Bungalow to the government at the rate of Re. 1.

On being told about the lease amount, Justice Ketkar said, “The plot in question is at a prime spot in the city. Can you (BMC) give this plot for lease at the rate of Re. 1? We want to know how can you given a prime plot like this for such a low price.”

To this, senior counsel Anil Sakhare defended the civic body citing the powers conferred upon the Municipal Commissioner by the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act. He told the judges the Act allows the Commissioner to dispose of the civic body’s immovable properties, with approval of the government.

Sakhare also told the judges that the government had recently amended the provision (which empowers commissioner to dispose of

properties) resultantly, the civic body has decided to hand over the bungalow at Dadar to the committee, which was formed to oversee the work of the memorial.

However, the civic body’s defence does not seem to gone down well with Justice Patil, who asked, “There have been so many memorials in the city and for them no rule was amended. We would like to know why the government felt the need to amend rules for this particular memorial. We want to ascertain the exact reason for amending the rules, given the fact there were not modified for the memorials built so far.”

The judges have accordingly asked the civic body and the government to clarify their stand on the issue and respond to the questions posed to them.

Meanwhile, advocate Uday Warunjikar, appearing for one of the petitioners, who have challenged the decision, told the judges that he wants to challenge the amendment made in the BMC Act for this memorial.

Posting the matter for further hearing after two weeks, the judges asked Warunjikar to file his plea challenging the amendment at the earliest.