Bombay High Court reprieve for Kapil Sharma in razing case

In an interim relief to comedian and host of The Kapil Sharma Show, the Bombay high court has directed the civic body not to demolish an illegal construction at actor Kapil Sharma’s Goregaon flat till his petition is heard on November 23.

After hearing the petition on Monday, the court also directed the clubbing of Mr Sharma’s petition with that of the builder as he had also filed a petition challenging a similar notice of the BMC.

A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing the petition filed by Mr Sharma through his advocate Pradeep Thorat challenging the April 28 notice issued by the BMC under section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act. The notice had said that as certain parts of the DLH Enclave at Goregaon in which the comedian owned a flat were illegal, those portions would be demolished.

Mr Sharma’s petition has said the notice was “bad in law”, “perverse” and issued with “malafide intentions”.

The petition further claimed that the civic authorities had issued a Full Occupation Certificate in 2013 to the developer and had earlier also given commencement certificates based on which the 18 floors had been constructed.

Mr Thorat informed the bench that the builder, Dev Land Housing Ltd, had also approached the high court against the notice and the petition was posted for hearing on November 23. “Let this petition (Sharma’s) also be tagged along with that petition for hearing on November 23. Till then, the notice is stayed,” said Mr More.

In November last year, the building and factory department of the BMC had issued a notice to Mr Sharma claiming that he had made some alterations inside his flat at ‘DLH Enclave’ in Goregaon, which was refuted by him. The BMC had not accepted his clarification and on April 28 issued a demolition notice.

Following this incident, Mr Sharma was again pulled by the BMC for illegal alterations and encroachment on mangroves at his Versova office in September. The comedian then took to the social media alleging that he had been asked to cough up Rs 5 lakh by a BMC official to hush up the issue of ‘illegal alterations’ made by him in his Versova office and Goregaon flat.