Nagpur: Continuing its crackdown against illegal religious structures that have mushroomed all over the city over many years, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to buy any contentions of the trusts operating them to stop the ongoing demolition drive.
Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Zaka Haq directed all of 967 trusts that had submitted objections with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to deposit Rs50,000 each with its registry to prove their bona fide within a week if they wanted to get heard.
“When the action started, they approached HC. We asked them to show bona fides first. It is noted that any intervention by HC at this stage, would wipe out action started in 2014 and it may be a setback to the administration,” the judges noted.
After a request by senior counsel Sunil Manohar appearing for the state government, HC recalled its July 5 orders of deducting Re1 from salaries of chief secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, Urban Development Department’s (UDD) principal secretary along with revenue and home secretaries. The court, however, took on record the government’s statement that any illegal structures on public roads and footpaths wouldn’t be considered for regularization.
The judges pointed out that in 2016, the principal bench in Mumbai had taken cognizance of similar situation based on SC’s 2011 verdict and directed the administration to enforce provisions of law. “Nearly three years later, same situation has cropped up before us,” they said
The stringent directives came while hearing a plea (WP No 6177/2006) by Dr Gajanan Zade and Manohar Khorgade through counsel Firdos Mirza praying for removal of encroachments, including religious structures, pandals, stages, statues and others from roads, pavements and public utility places.
The HC continued to blast the five interveners/applicants represented by counsel Anil Kilor and others and initially asked them to deposit Rs10 lakh to prove their bona fide. Only after they requested to reduce the amount considering their financial situation the deposit was reduced to Rs50,000.
“History of the matter shows that after Supreme Court’s verdict in 2011, these petitioners/objectors didn’t find it convenient to respond for over seven years. Neither they replied to NMC’s notice nor take timely steps to assist the administration in implementing provisions of law,” the bench observed.
Earlier, NMC commissioner Virendra Singh filed an affidavit stating they received several objections and scores of delegation were meeting them with a request to first decide their case before razing the structures. Till July 17, they received 967 objections of which 112 were having prima facie case, while others failed to submit proper documents. He prayed for permission from HC to hear all objectors and decide their cases (40/week) within a stipulated time without affecting the ongoing demolition drive.
After court’s rap to NMC for creating confusion, another affidavit was filed in afternoon by its estate officer Rajendra Bhute clarifying they had identified 1,521 illegal structures that were classified in ‘A’ and ‘B’ categories. Of them 18 were in first category, while 1,503 in second category would be demolished. In all 475 of them were found to be on road and footpaths.
When hearing started at 10.30am, the courtroom was packed with politicians and their workers. They included ruling party in NMC leader Sandip Joshi, former mayor Pravin Datke and others. Apart from Manohar, two senior counsels Chandrashekhar Kaptan (NMC) and Surendrakumar Mishra (NIT) also made their arguments.
The judges orally slammed NMC and NIT for not being able to assist the court and showing no seriousness on the issue. “Number of years have lost, still the comprehensive list was not prepared. After SC’s 2011 order, NMC issued notices in 2014 and HC issued directives again in 2016. Still no action was taken all these years. These objectors continue to be in slumber for all these years and woke up after NMC started razing structures,” they said.
East Nagpur MLA Krishna Khopde welcomed the high court’s direction to all 967 objectors to deposit Rs50,000 saying it will help devotees to regularize religious structures.
(With inputs from Ritika Gupta)
