HC asks BMC chief to hear out Amitabh on his Juhu bungalow
MUMBAI: In a relief to veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and his actor wife Jaya Bachchan, the Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner to hear the representation made by the couple against the notice served to them by the civic body to acquire part of the land on which their bungalow Prateeksha is constructed at Juhu, for extension of the road line.
HC has also restrained BMC from taking any coercive steps till the representation is heard.
A division bench of justice R D Dhanuka and justice S M Modak while hearing the petition filed by the actor and his wife was informed that the petition was seeking directions to the BMC commissioner to hear them and decide their February 17, 2022 representation against the acquisition of a portion of their plot. The petition also challenged the notices issued to the Bachchans by the BMC in April 2017 which stated that the civic authority would take possession of parts of the plot as it falls within the regular street line. According to the petition the notices issued to them under section 299 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1888 were invalid as they were inconsistent with the relevant sections of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, a central enactment and its operation supersede the MMC Act.
The petition also sought no coercive action till their representation was heard.
After hearing the petition on Wednesday, the bench granted the actors two weeks to make any additional representation to the civic body’s commissioner if they wanted to add anything to their February 17 representation. The bench directed the commissioner to decide the representation within six weeks thereafter. The HC also allowed the actors another three weeks to take appropriate legal recourse, after the commissioner’s decision on the representation.
The bench disposed of the petition after senior advocate Anil Sakhare and advocate Rohan Mirpury for the BMC assured the bench that no coercive action would be taken till the representations were decided.