The Bombay high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into the alleged corruption and illegalities around the sale of property in Malabar Hill on which
The Bombay high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into the alleged corruption and illegalities around the sale of property in Malabar Hill on which Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani’s home, Antilia, was built. The court not only dismissed the petition, calling it frivolous, but also imposed a cost on the petitioner as well as the intervener.
A division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice M.S. Sonak on Tuesday directed petitioner Shadaab Patel and intervener advocate Firoz Ansari to pay a sum of Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively as fines. Mr Ansari had filed an intervention application in support of Mr Patel’s PIL .
The bench asked both of them to deposit the amounts in Tata Memorial Hospital for the treatment of poor cancer patients.
The bench, on the last date of hearing, had asked the petitioner to explain the delay in filing the PIL. Mr Patel, through his lawyer Javed Akhtar Khan, had filed an affidavit, which stated that the Shaikh Commission was looking into this matter so there was no point in approaching the court at that time. This commission filed its report a few years ago and state minority affairs minister Eknath Khadse tabled it in the Legislative Assembly in 2015. Following this, the Maharashtra chief minister on April 12, 2015 stated that strict action would be taken against culprits.
According to the petitioner after that statement the state has not taken any action in this regard and hence the PIL was filed. The affidavit also said that the state was silent on this issue, which raised doubts over whether the government was hand-in-glove with other respondents responsible for the alleged illegal land deal. The judges, however, were not satisfied and said, “Why have you (petitioner) filed this petition 14 years after the sale of the land in question If you were a bona fide petitioner and social activist you would not have come after so long.” “It is high time we take a decision to dismiss such frivolous petitions with heavy costs. Only then can we put a stop to this,” said Justice Kanade.
