‘Able-bodied can walk 300 metres’: HC rejects plea for vehicle entry into BSE restricted zone
The court noted that the “drop/pick up and go” facility was earlier granted to the petitioner’s late father, who was advanced in age and suffered heart ailments.
A division bench led by Justice Ravindra V Ghuge on January 13 was hearing a plea by 50-year-old businessman Sanjay Pukhraj Bafna, who has his office near the BSE building. (File Photo) Dismissing a businessman’s plea seeking permission to drive his vehicle into the restricted zone around Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Dalal Street in south Mumbai’s Fort area, the Bombay High Court last week said an “able-bodied person can surely walk from the security barricades to his office near the BSE building, a distance of hardly 300 metres.”
The court noted that the “drop/pick up and go” facility was earlier granted to the petitioner’s late father, who was advanced in age and suffered heart ailments.
It clarified that such permission can be extended only to persons with grave and serious ailments who cannot walk even 300 metres from the security barricades.
A division bench led by Justice Ravindra V Ghuge on January 13 was hearing a plea by 50-year-old businessman Sanjay Pukhraj Bafna, who has his office near the BSE building.
Bafna, through advocates Mutahhar Khan and Yash Dhakad, claimed that the vehicle he uses to travel to his office is barred entry, despite his exclusive possession of a private parking space within the building compound. The petitioner said the court had in 2012 allowed his father to be dropped at the gates of Veena Chambers, with the vehicle leaving immediately thereafter. Moreover, after office hours, his father was allowed to be picked up from the office in the prohibited area.
The court was informed that while his father died in 2023, Bafna was told last year by the concerned police station that his vehicle would be stopped near the security barricades unless he obtained a court order to bring it within the restricted area. Aggrieved, the petitioner approached the HC.
The BSE cited a police communication and took the stand that entry of the petitioner’s vehicle into the area should be prohibited.
The court observed that the need for the petitioner’s father to be dropped and picked up by vehicle from the restricted area “extinguished” after he passed away. The bench noted even after 2023, “the security was under the impression that the deceased is travelling in the said vehicle.”
The HC further refused to grant the petitioner liberty for “drop or pick up and go” as no health grounds were cited by him.
“The petitioner is present in the court hall and was standing before the court during the hearing, which lasted almost 30 minutes. He appears to be able-bodied and had no difficulty standing before the court. As such, at this stage, we are not considering the request of the petitioner,” the court noted.
It also directed the Senior Police Inspector of MRA Marg police station to “conduct a routine review of security and should not be complacent.”
Citing larger security concerns, the HC refused to entertain the plea and noted: “Needless to state, this order would not apply to BSE officials or high dignitaries visiting the BSE for official purposes.”
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