On September 9, the BMC demolished a portion of Kangana Ranaut’s Pali Hill bungalow.
Mumbai:
On Friday, the Bombay High Court asked if all the structures in actor Kangana Ranaut’s bungalow that was demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on September 9 were under construction or if they existed before.
A bench from the division of judges SJ Kathawalla and RI Chagla, upon hearing the actor’s petition against demolition, also asked why the BMC demolished several structures on the ground floor.
According to the BMC, Ms. Ranaut had made several unauthorized alterations to her Pali Hill bungalow, which were first noticed on September 5.
The court wanted to know if there were alterations, illegal or not, before that, because under section 354 A of the Mumbai Municipal Corporations Law, the BMC can only stop illegal construction “in progress”.
Ms. Ranaut has already stated in her amended petition that she had photos of a pooja ceremony held in January 2020 and photos from the April-May 2020 issue of Elle Dcor magazine showing that the demolished parts existed at the time. .
Therefore, BMC’s claim that illegal work was being performed was false, their statement said.
The actor maintained that he did not perform any illegal construction, and whatever alterations were made, they existed prior to the BMC action.
Ms. Ranaut’s attorney, lead attorney Birendra Saraf, told the court on Friday that when the civic body delivered a demolition notice, only some waterproofing work was underway and she had the necessary permits for it.
“Despite the fact that no illegal work has ever been done, the parts that the BMC has said are illegal construction in progress, existed before the illegality was detected,” Saraf said.
He also noted that the photos presented to the court by the BMC on Friday did not have any digital timestamps, but only a note that dated them to September 5.
The court asked lead attorney Aspi Chinoy, who appeared for BMC, to ask the BMC officer who took the photos to present his phone number to the court, so that it can be determined when the photos were taken.
“We will examine whether this work was a work in progress,” the court said and asked Ms. Ranaut’s attorney to report, at the next date, if all the demolished parts existed in the same way in January 2020.
The court also noted that the BMC in its affidavit had said that Kangana Ranaut had changed the position of the ground floor entrance, but much more was demolished on the ground floor.
“What we are thinking about is how the ground floor was demolished if there is no work in progress there. The only thing shown is that the position of the entrance door was changed, no work in progress is shown on the ground floor.
“Everything they have claimed in the affidavit about the ground floor is already done (in the past). So how was the ground floor demolished?” He asked.
Saraf said the entire action was malicious, which was demonstrated by the fact that BMC took action after Ms Ranaut made some critical comments about the Maharashtra government.
Discussions will continue on Monday.
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