Bombay High Court rejects Centre's plea against metro car shed project in Mumbai

Bombay High Court rejects Centre’s plea against metro car shed project in Mumbai

The registrar of the Bombay High Court has rejected a petition filed by the Central government through the Deputy Salt commissioner, challenging the revenue proceedings in respect of the ownership and possession of saltpan land in Mumbai’s Kanjurmarg area for the development of a car shed in the ongoing metro rail project.

Sachin Bhasali, the registrar on the Original Side of Bombay High Court, also called the Prothonotary and Senior Master, noted that since the filing of the petition on October 20, 2020, the lawyers who filed it have not made a single attempt to remove office objections and get the petition finally numbered.

“Perused record and proceedings, more particularly objections raised by the Scrutiny Officer on 20.10.2020. It appears that the petitioner till date has not made a single attempt to remove office objections and get the petition numbered,” noted the registrar.

“The present Writ Petition is of the year 2020 and is still pending at the stage of removal of office objections. It seems that the petitioner is not interested in pursuing the present petition. Hence, the present petition is rejected under Rule 986 of Original Side Rules”, the registrar added in his order.

Notably, the Registrar on the Original Side (Registrar OS) of the Bombay High Court ensures all pleadings in petitions in which the cause of action arises within the territorial limits of the Mumbai district are filed in compliance with the High Court rules.

As per these rules, standard requirements are furnishing English translations of documents in regional languages, furnishing legible copies, and ensuring all affidavits in support of the petition are duly filed with necessary signatures. These objections are raised by department officers, and a time of 30 days is granted to remove such objections.

If there is a failure to remove these objections after 30 days, the petition is placed before the Registrar (OS) who can either extend the time to remove objections or reject the petition if no reasonable explanation is furnished for delay.

The present petition filed by the Central government was placed before the Prothonotary on January 17 as office objections had not been removed since 2020 and was accordingly rejected.

The petition challenged an order passed by the District Magistrate (DM) granting land at Kanjurmarg to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the construction of a metro car shed under the Mumbai Metro Rail project, when the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power in the state.

The BJP-Shiv Sena government, which had been in power before the MVA, had decided to construct the car shed in the green zone of the Aarey area of Mumbai.

However, raising the issue of protecting the green zone, the MVA government stopped the construction of the car shed inside Aarey and planned to shift it to Kanjurmarg.

Soon after this plan was projected, the Central government decided to stress before the court that the plan of shifting the car shed to Kanjurmarg could not happen as the land belonged to them.

A bench of the High Court in December 2020 had directed an interim stay on the transfer of 102 acres of land to MMRDA for carrying out work towards the metro car shed. It also expressed its displeasure over how the order had been passed by the DM, emphasising that the same bordered on committing a ‘fraud on power’.

Later, when the MVA government was toppled and the Eknath Shinde-led government, with the BJP, again came to power and transferred the Metro car shed project back to Aarey, which was recognised as a forest area under the MVA.

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