Mumbai's St Stephens church gets high court breather

St Stephens church at Cumballa Hill in south Mumbai got some reprieve on Monday when the Bombay high court asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to hear out the church’s contention before taking away a part of the its land for road widening.

A division bench of justices DK Deshmukh and KK Tated has directed the petitioner, Fr Jude Pereira, a trustee of the church which was built decades ago, to make a fresh representation before the civic commissioner and explain to them their grievances in contesting the handing out of the setback land peacefully.

According to the petition filed by Fr Pereira, in 1973, the BMC had made a similar demand to the church and accordingly it had given a part of the church land for road widening. The BMC, in return, had also been told by the church that no further setback would be allowed.

Advocate Joaquim Reis appearing for the church said, “According to the notice, we had given sufficient land to the BMC then, and now if we give more, the steps of the church will land directly on the main road, which could lead to accidents.”

The petition also states that the church has made representations to the BMC, without avail. Thus, anticipating that the BMC might demolish the boundary wall of the church, a petition was moved before the high court.