Petitions oppose Bal Thackeray memorial, HC issues notice to trust

A day after the state government sanctioned ₹100 crore for a memorial of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the Bombay high court on Thursday issued a notice to the Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak, a public charitable trust formed by the state government to look after memorial proposed to be constructed at the Mayor’s Bungalow in Shivaji Park.

A day after the state government sanctioned ₹100 crore for a memorial of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the Bombay high court on Thursday issued a notice to the Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak, a public charitable trust formed by the state government to look after memorial proposed to be constructed at the Mayor’s Bungalow in Shivaji Park.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray (L) and CM Devendra Fadnavis at an event for the Bal Thackeray memorial, on Wednesday. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

A division bench of chief justice Naresh Patil and justice NM Jamdar issued a notice to the trust following PILs challenging the state decision to convert the sprawling bungalow in Dadar into the memorial. One of the petitions was filed by city activist Bhagwanji Raiyani. His lawyer, advocate Pradip Havnur, submitted that there was no reason to convert the public property into a memorial of a political leader and also provide public funds for it.

Havnur further submitted that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does not own the property, it merely holds and protects as trustee on behalf of the citizens. He complained that the civic body had decided to transfer the prime property in favour of a “private trust” for ₹1 a year lease and this memorial is sponsored by sanctioning public funds of ₹100 crore for development of the memorial.

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, who represented another petitioner, Jan Mukti Morcha, said the municipal property could not be disposed in this manner, as a public property can be disposed only by inviting bids and granting opportunity to the public at large to bid. Senior advocate Milind Sathe, who represented the state,disputed the claim that the trust was a private one. He said the trust is formed by the government and is very much a public charitable trust. The senior advocate said merely because it had private individuals as some of its trustees, does not mean that the trust is not a government trust.