Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the waqf tribunal to conduct a rehearing of a plot of land in Nashik on which a developer had constructed a building in spite of having been restrained from handing over possession of the homes till the matter was disposed of. The HC has berated the tribunal for bypassing an apex court order that restrained the developer from handing over possession of flats in the building constructed by it.
A bench of Justice Dr Shalini Phansalkar Joshi was hearing two civil revision petitions filed by a trust claiming that a plot of land at Nashik belonged to it and was registered with the waqf board while the other petition was filed by a developer who had
purchased a part of the plot and had constructed a building which was ready to be handed over the persons who booked flats in it.
Both the applications were filed after the waqf tribunal had passed an order that was contrary to an apex court order. While the trust claimed that the CEO of the waqf board had erred in bypassing the apex court order in allowing the developer to hand over possession of flats to 142 persons. The developer, meanwhile, had filed the application seeking revision of a stay on the construction of the building.
After hearing both sides and perusing through the previous orders of the Supreme Court, high court and waqf tribunal, the bench said that it was a first wherein the tribunal had violated an apex court order and permitted the developer to hand over possession of the flats to the buyers and directed the tribunal to hear and decide on the matter afresh.
