Mumbai: The Bombay high court has restrained the Mumbai police from continuing the investigations in the case filed against comedian Kapil Sharma for alleged violations in construction of his Goregaon flat. While disposing off Mr Sharma’s petition, the court also asked the BMC to conduct a personal hearing for the petitioners after they filed their reply.
On Thursday, a division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and M. S. Karnik was hearing a clutch of petitions filed by Kapil Sharma, actor Irrfan Khan and 18 others including the builder of DLH Enclave, against a 2016 demolition notice. In a previous hearing, Mr Sharma had pointed out that there were two simultaneous cases against him in the high court and civil court to which the court had directed the BMC to decide which case it wanted to pursue.
The BMC informed the court that it had withdrawn the notice filed in November 2014 under section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, which was being heard by the city civil court. An FIR was also registered by the BMC under section 53 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act in September 2016.
After the HC was informed that the 2014 notice had been withdrawn, the court asked the petitioners to file a reply within three weeks with the BMC and directed the civic body to conduct a hearing. Pradeep Thorat appearing for Mr Sharma told the court that the petitioners would file appropriate reply against the allegations.
After hearing Mr Sharma, the bench said, “Since the corporation has withdrawn the first notice, the petitioners can file their reply within three weeks. We also direct the authorities not to take any coercive action with respect to the FIRs registered in this regard.” The court also directed the developer to provide details of all the occupants of the flats to the BMC.
