Over 7,200 sq yards of prime land in Gandhi Nagar, Bandra (East), will be utilised for a `playground’ rather than a school and cultural centre. The land was allotted to Abhinav Sahakar Education Society in 1965.
In a strange turn of events after the Maharashtra government changed its mind, over 7,200 sq yards of prime land in Gandhi Nagar, Bandra (East), will be utilised for a `playground’ rather than a school and cultural centre. The land was allotted to Abhinav Sahakar Education Society in 1965.
After a sustained legal battle over the use of the prime land in a space starved city, the Supreme Court has upheld the Maharashtra government’s decision to change in the use of land as it stressed that this ``process involves consideration of competing claims and requirements of the inhabitants in present and future”.
It said that the modification of the lease order allowing MIG Cricket Club by scraping the 99 years allotment license to Abhinav Sahakar Education Society had been taken after considering the interests of people living around the site and ``to make the inhabitants lives happy, healthy and comfortable’’.
Scrapping the Bombay high court ruling that had come in a writ petition filed by the aggrieved society, the SC said the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, says that the development plan sanctioned by the state government before its commencement becomes final and in that regard the site was reserved for a `playground’. Later it was modified to a ‘school and cultural society’’, a bench of Justices Markandey Katju and C K Prasad said.
However, the society said it was allotted 7224 sq yards as a consequence of the resolution passed by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, Bombay Housing and Area Development Board, Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay in 1965.
However, on measurement of the plot, the area was found to be 7301.25 sq yards and when it proposed to construct a school building on it. Later it learnt that the area has been reserved for a “playground in the draft development plan’’.
It drew the attention of MHADA and BHADB to this fact in May 1968. It sought the user of the land changed in accordance with law.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 came into effect in December 1966.
On November 15, 1978 the Secretary to the Department of Housing and the Chief Executive Officer and Vice-President of MHADA requested Urban Development Department secretary for modification of the draft development plan showing “school purpose” for the user of the said plot.
The society submitted the plan and documents sought the Senior Town Planner of the Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority.
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