HC to hotel: Water will be restored if ₹23.89 cr is deposited in the court

In an interim order passed on Wednesday, a division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Aarti Sathe said that SHL’s water connection would be restored as soon as the company’s director files an undertaking stating that ₹23.89 crore would be deposited with the high court’s registry in four weeks

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has asked Sahara Hospitality Limited (SHL), that runs Hotel Sahara Star near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to deposit ₹23.89 cr in the court for restoration of the hotel’s water supply. The order comes amid an ongoing dispute over property tax between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and SHL.

Gavel and law books (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In an interim order passed on Wednesday, a division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Aarti Sathe said that SHL’s water connection would be restored as soon as the company’s director files an undertaking stating that ₹23.89 crore would be deposited with the high court’s registry in four weeks.

SHL’s counsel told the court that the BMC had sent demand notices to the company regarding three of its properties, trying to recover the alleged arrears of property taxes since 2001. SHL told the court that the civic body had taken this action calling it a “provisional assessment”, which is a temporary determination of the tax liability made when the actual, final tax amount is to be decided later.

The BMC’s approach, the SHL argued, had “seriously violated” the company’s right to carry on its business as their water supply had been disconnected which led to the “civil death” of the company. However, the civic body’s representatives stated that the water supply would be restored if the company paid up the disputed amount.

Opposing any interim relief to SHL, the civic body added that “certain illegal constructions were raised” by the company for which the BMC had issued five demand notices to it between January 1 and February 23.

The judges said that they had granted the SHL four weeks to deposit the amount in court keeping in mind that the company was under liquidation in the recent past and, according to its counsel, it had recently come out of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). The court also granted a stay on the demand notices issued by the BMC until the next hearing in the case.

While the BMC has been asked to file its reply in four weeks, the case has been posted for further hearing after six weeks.