Reiterating its ownership and title over the disputed land in suburban Kanjurmarg, the Union government has claimed that the decree in the name of a private firm with respect to the land was obtained by “fraud” and should be held as null and void.
The claim was made in an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court on Monday by deputy salt commissioner, C Raghu, on behalf of the Union government.
There is a dispute between the Maharashtra government and the Union government over the ownership of the said land where the former has proposed to construct a car shed for its Metro project in around 100 acre of the said land.
The Maharashtra government learnt in March that in October 2020, the HC had granted decree of over 6000-acre land at Kanjurmarg to a private firm Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts. The government then filed an application before the HC challenging the decree and sought that it be held illegal.
The Union government filed it affidavit in this application reiterating its ownership of the land and said that it owned and possessed the land. The affidavit read the consent terms dated October 2020 as far as it deals with the said land is “a fraud played upon this honourable court” and the government. “The said consent terms ought to be set aside being void and not binding upon this respondent (Union government),” the affidavit adds.
“The Union government denies that the applicant (Maharashtra government) or any other party has any right, title and interest or possession of the land,” stated the affidavit filed by the Defence Estates Officer of the Union government.
The central government has further said that it learnt about the decree in favour of Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts only after the application filed by the Maharashtra government this March.
The state government application claimed that it owned the over 1800 acres of the disputed land and the private firm did not have any right to it and it obtained the decree “fraudulently”. The application added that the firm deliberately did not make the state government a party to the suit.
On October 28, 2020, the HC had passed an order in a 2006 suit filed by the private firm against few persons. The firm had sought specific performance or compliance of an agreement of August 2005, as per which, it claimed, that it was granted development rights of the entire Kanjur village .
However, government pleader Himanshu Takke, argued that the High Court was then not informed that of the over 6,000 acre land, over 1,800 acres belonged to the state government, nearly 120 acre to the Centre and nearly 200 acre of land parcels in Kanjurmarg village to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Justice A K Menon has kept the matter for hearing on June 13.
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