State denying access to papers used for affidavit: Bombay Dyeing

Bombay Dyeing said it also filed an RTI plea,but to no avail.

Assistant government pleader G W Mattos said the company may be permitted to inspect the documents but it could not seek information from the various other departments referred in the papers.

A division bench led by justice Abhay Oka then asked Bombay Dyeing to file a rejoinder by April 1.

“P D Chavan,a section officer in the textile department,issued a letter to the petitioners (Bombay Dyeing) on October 4,2004,allegedly according approval to the said proposal dated August 19,2004,without the authority of law in as much as the same was not only not approved by the minister of textiles but also not by the chief minister,” Chandrashekhar Gajbe,deputy secretary,department of cooperation,marketing and textiles,stated in the affidavit filed on December 7,2012.

The affidavit was filed after Bombay Dyeing moved court against a state government notification of January 5,2012,telling BMC no official approval was granted to its modified proposal regarding the mill land.

In March last year,BMC had asked Bombay Dyeing architects to submit an amended layout,in accordance with a permission granted on November 10,2003. In June 2012,BMC issued a stop-work notice to the company.

Bombay Dyeing called the government letter to BMC “patent abuse of power” and demanded it be set aside. The company said the government took into account “irrelevant” and “extraneous” circumstances “clearly vitiated by legal and factual mala fides”.