A division bench of justice VM Kanade and justice MS Karnik directed the corporation to file its reply by May 4 and posted the matter for further hearing.
The Bombay High Court, by way of interim relief, has stayed a demolition notice issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to the parishioners of Our Lady of Remedy Church in Kandivli West, which says 7m of the church's graveyard will be demolished due to the proposed widening of SV Road.
A division bench of justice VM Kanade and justice MS Karnik directed the corporation to file its reply by May 4 and posted the matter for further hearing. The church had approached the court after the corporation issued notice in February and gave evasive replies even after repeated representations.
The petition states that parishioners had earlier suggested to the BMC that the road could be widened from the other side. The church and the cemetery are protected under the Heritage list. The church has, on multiple occasions, given away its land to the BMC for development. But the parishioners feel the latest notice amounts to exploitation of a peace-loving minority community.
Further, the church says that there are several graves in the said heritage cemetery, which have sentimental and religious value. The graves cannot be reopened or have a road go over them, since this would create a law and order situation in the locality and would also amount to degradation of human dignity due to the exposure of non-decomposed corpses, which is against the rules of the corporation.
The petition also alleges that the corporation is acting on the behest of a local politician who is a builder and his business prospects from a newly-constructed building on the road have been affected, which is why he is pressuring the civic body.
The portion under dispute includes 7m of the graveyard and a cross within the compound wall of the 400-year-old church. The BMC issued notice to the church under Section 299 (acquisition of open land or of land occupied by platforms within the regular line of a street) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, which the parishioners are challenging.
The church is said to have been built in the year 1555, while the heritage INRI cross was in existence since 1932. In 1942, a Christ the King statute was placed there.
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