The Bombay High Court Monday granted interim relief to comedian Kapil Sharma in a case pertaining to alleged illegal alterations in his Goregaon flat by staying the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) demolition notice till November 23. Sharma had approached the High Court challenging this notice issued by the BMC. A bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai restrained the BMC from taking any adverse steps against the property until further orders. The bench will now take up Sharma’s plea for further hearing on November 23, along with another petition seeking a similar relief that has been filed by Dev Land and Housing Ltd, the developer of the 18-storeyed residential building in Goregaon where Sharma lives. While the developer had moved court earlier this month, Sharma mentioned his plea in the court on Monday through his counsel Pradeep Thorat. In his plea, Sharma claimed that the corporation’s notice was “bad in law,” “vague,” and that it was issued with “malafide intentions,” and sought that the notice be set aside. Further, directions be issued to the corporation to not act upon the notice pending hearing of his plea in HC. In September, Sharma had tweeted alleging that some BMC officials had demanded Rs five lakh from him as bribe for construction certifications in his office in a row house in Versova. The BMC had then claimed that Sharma had flouted norms in his Goregaon property. On April 28 this year, BMC had issued a notice to Sharma for the Goregaon property. The corporation had served notices to Sharma, actor Irrfan Khan, the developer and 15 other residents of the Goregaon building for illegal constructions and other violations under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act. Sharma’s petition states that he had booked his flat on the ninth floor of the 18-storey building in 2010. “The civic body issued a revised commencement certificate granting permission to construct the building in 2010. On November 6, 2013 the corporation issued a Full Occupation Certificate. However, on November 14, 2014 an assistant engineer from the BMC’s Building and Factory department issued a notice claiming a part of the building was illegal,” the petition states. The developer sent a reply to the corporation denying the charge. On December 1, 2014, the corporation rejected Sharma’s reply. An application was also submitted in the Dindoshi sessions court against the notice. On December 15, 2014 the sessions court granted interim relief and directed the civic body to not initiate any action pending hearing of the application. “Despite the sessions court order, the corporation, without challenging the order, issued another notice on April 28, 2016 directing razing of the illegal portions of the building,” the petition adds.
