HC disposes off PIL against ‘Antilia’

The Bombay High Court’s decision on Tuesday to dispose a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking action against the costliest apartment - Antilia - has come as relief for industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

Activist Shadab Patel had filed a PIL before a division bench of Justice Vidyasagar Kanade and Justice Mahesh Sonak and sought action against Antilia, which he claimed to be built on the land of Wakf Board.

According to Patel, the land was originally allotted to the Wakf Board to build an Orphanage, but the industrialist wrongfully purchased the land.

Earlier, the bench asked the petitioner to file a rejoinder and spell out the reasons for the delay to file the said PIL. This direction was issued after the bench noted the date of purchase, which is in 2002.

On Tuesday, when the matter came up for hearing, the bench perused the rejoinder and found that the petitioner has failed to cite any specific and genuine reason for delaying to file the said PIL.

The bench came down heavily on Patel saying, “You have come after 14 years to file this petition. If you were a bona fide petitioner and a social activist you would have not come after such a long time. You are just wasting the court’s time now.”

“Time has come that we should dismiss such frivolous petitions with heavy costs, only then we can stop such practice,” the bench added.

Accordingly, the bench directed Patel to pay a total of Rs 50,000 as a cost to Tata Cancer Hospital.

Meanwhile, one Firoz Ansari had approached the bench to intervene in the matter.

The bench was not convinced by Ansari’s contention of being a ‘beneficiary’ of the Wakf Board land and subsequently the bench imposed a cost to Rs 25,000 on Ansari and asked him to pay the same to Tata Cancer Hospital.