Nonagenarian wins one-year legal battle to get her sealed Fort premises back

After a one-year court battle, a 90-year-old woman in Mumbai has finally regained possession of her flat, which was sealed by the police without due diligence. The legal battle was fought by her niece, who was granted power of attorney, and the flat was sealed after the licensee was booked in a criminal case. The police finally handed over the flat after a contempt petition was filed. The case highlights the importance of thorough background checks when renting out property and the need for accountability for police actions.

MUMBAI: After a one-year court battle fought against the APMC police in Vashi, 90-year-old Dolly Katrak was finally able to get back her flat, Rati House, on the third floor of Reliable Citadel in Fort on Saturday. The cops had sealed the premises without doing due diligence after the licensee that Katrak had leased the flat to was booked in a criminal case.

90-year-old Dolly Katrak

The legal battle was fought by her niece Beheroze Cooper, to whom Katrak had granted power of attorney (POA) on December 3, 2019, as she was unable to manage her properties. The 70-plus Cooper moved the Belapur magistrate court and got a ruling in her aunt’s favour. When the police procrastinated on handing over the flat despite this, the spunky senior citizen filed a contempt petition against them.

The three-year leave-and-license agreement for the Reliable Citadel flat was executed by Kartak through Cooper to a licensee (the alleged accused) on December 4, 2019. The lessee had been paying rent till August 2022. When the rent stopped, Cooper went to make enquiries and was shocked to learn that the APMC police had sealed the property during the course of the investigation on the alleged accused.

“The police were uncooperative and corrupt,” said Cooper. “The flat was sealed around September-October 2022. I wasn’t aware that it was sealed but I did not receive rent in September. When they learnt of the alleged fraud by our licensee, the police should have checked the records, as the maintenance bills are in the name of my aunt.”

On November 11, 2022, Cooper wrote to the APMC police, informing them that the sealed premises belonged to her aunt and should be handed over to her. All her pleas, however, fell on deaf ears.

Just before she handed the matter over to advocate Prerak Choudhary, Cooper went to the APMC police station one last time. “When I was there, the police official sitting in his cabin said, ‘Parsi logon ke paas bahut paisa hai (Parsis have a lot of money).’ I understood their hint.”

On March 8, 2023, Cooper moved the Belapur magistrate court, but despite getting an order on April 4, 2023 in their favour, the APMC police did not hand over possession of the premises for six months. “This was probably in a bid to extort money from us,” she said.

Cooper added that the rent she collected for the two-room flat went towards paying the salary of a caretaker appointed to look after her ailing aunt. “I had to hire an ayah for her and the rent of ₹22,000 was going directly to the ayah,” she said.

On December 15, Cooper filed a contempt petition. The matter was to come up for hearing on December 19 but the police called Cooper on December 16 and finally handed over possession of her aunt’s premises after a year of dilly-dallying.

When asked about the lessons from this case for those who lease their premises/flats out, advocate Choudhary said, “One should do a thorough check of the person one is renting out to and check if they have a criminal background. Do a police verification—which people normally do now—and use your own common sense if the person looks fishy. If he commits some crime, the police will come and seal your property.”

Choudhary added that there was also a lesson in the case for the police too, as they were not supposed to seal immovable properties. “Abroad, cops like these would have been taken to task,” said Cooper. “But in our country nothing happens to them.”