Bombay HC tells BMC to file new affidavit for Bandra burial plot

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the BMC to file a fresh compliance affidavit in the petition on allotment of a plot of land in Bandra or Khar west for a graveyard. The court rapped the BMC’s executive engineer development planning 2034, for submitting details contrary to the draft Development Plan (DP). The court has given the BMC two weeks to file the report had kept the matter for hearing on February 3.

A division bench of chief justice Dr Manjula Chellur and Justice G. S. Kulkarni was hearing a petition filed by Furqan Qureshi seeking directions for the BMC and the state government to allot a plot of two acres land for a Sunni Muslim graveyard in Bandra/Khar west.

In an earlier hearing on December 22 last year, after the state had informed the court that the BMC was authorised to allot a plot, the court had asked the civic corporation to allot a plot in Bandra or Khar west and had also restrained the BMC from creating any third party rights in Block A of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) under the Special Planning Authority (SPA) which is located at Bandra Reclamation.

On Friday, the BMC filed a compliance affidavit through advocate Trupti Puranik that mentioned that there was no reservation in the ward for a graveyard and hence a requirement for the same should be submitted by the residents in the ongoing suggestions/objections process it had undertaken under the DP of 2034. It also assured the bench that it had not created any third party rights in Block A, when the bench made an oral observation that the BMC was dallying on allotment of the plot to benefit vested interests.

However, Ashraf Ahmed Shaikh, petitioner’s advocate, pointed out that the BMC’s affidavit was misleading as the draft DP plan published in May 2016 showed reservation for a graveyard in Block A of BKC and the officers submitting the affidavit had conveniently overseen it. After hearing both sides and perusing the evidence the bench told the BMC that it should file a fresh affidavit after taking into account the draft DP plan published by itself.