Collector withdraws order giving Kanjurmarg land to MMRDA for car shed

The HC subsequently disposed of the petition filed by the central government, which challenged the October 2020 collector’s order

Mumbai The city district collector has informed the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday that they were withdrawing their order of October 2020, which directed that 102 acres of land at Kanjurmarg will be given to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for construction of the Metro car shed. This submission came on the day of the first trial run of Metro 3.

The court also clarified that the competing claims on that piece of land, made by both the Centre and a private citizen, would be decided separately (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

The HC subsequently disposed of the petition filed by the central government, which challenged the October 2020 collector’s order. The court also clarified that the competing claims on that piece of land, made by both the Centre and a private citizen, would be decided separately.

Tuesday’s developments are not surprising as the Eknath Shinde government had already announced that the car shed would be constructed at Aarey and on August 29, had decided that the collector would withdraw the October 2020 order.

After hearing the submissions of advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, the division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni accepted the same and directed MMRDA to vacate the plot forthwith and remove all its equipment from there. MMRDA’s advocate Saket Mone confirmed that nothing had been done on the plot and that they would comply with the court order.

However, advocate Shyam Mehta for petitioner Mahesh Garodia, the other claimant of the Kanjurmarg land, interjected and sought an order from the court that the plot’s possession be given to his client since he was the original owner. AG Kumbhakoni opposed this stating that the issue of whether Garodia could be given possession of the land was yet to be decided in another petition which is pending before the HC, hence the court should not pass any order in that regard.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh for the GOI submitted that though its petition challenging the collector’s order did not survive anymore, its claim to the ownership of the plot was pending.

The bench accepted the submissions of both ASG Singh and AG Kumbhakoni and said it was only disposing of one petition while the other petitions would be taken up by the appropriate bench and decided separately.

The GOI had approached the HC a month prior to the collector’s October 2020 order and challenged the 2018 decision of the then revenue minister, Chandrakant Patil, that all salt pan land at Kanjurmarg belonged to the state government. However, after the October 2020 order of the collector was passed, the GOI amended its petition and included a challenge to Patil’s order as well. In December 2020, the high court had stayed any construction activity on the said plot and had also restrained MMRDA from doing anything on it until the petition was decided.