Bombay High Court also ordered the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to maintain status quo on the land.
In a jolt to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted an interim stay on the Collector's order transferring 102 acres of saltpan lands at Kanjurmarg for constructing the Mumbai metro car shed.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni also ordered the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to maintain status quo on the land till the Centre and other parties claiming title rights on the disputed land are heard.
The next hearing will be held in February on the tussle involving the state and Centre over the ownership of the land where the car shed is proposed to come up, even as the state may consider challenging the stay in the Supreme Court.
The Centre had challenged the October 1, 2020 order of Mumbai Suburban District Collector - allotting the land for the construction of the Mumbai metro car shed - claiming the land belong to the Centre's Salt Department.
"We cannot allow the Collector's order. The order has to go. We are admitting the petition and granting reliefs as sought by the petitioner (Centre)," the court ruled.
In October, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had scrapped the plans for the car shed to come up in the eco-sensitive Aarey Colony and shifted it to Kanjurmarg, as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the move by the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government.
Sena Ministers Aditya Thackeray and Anil Parab said that they would first study the detailed court order before commenting, while NCP President and Minister Jayant Patil said that this is not the final verdict of the court.
"This land is crucial for the Mumbai Metro Lines 3, 4, 6, and 14, plus it will save almost Rs 5,500 crore of the state government, and become a nodal point for the one crore citizens," said Aditya Thackeray.
"The state BJP is creating obstacles in the state's development plans. In June, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had recommended that the Kanjurmarg land must be handed over to the state government. Suddenly, the Salt Department stake a claim over the land under the influence of the state BJP," said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.
Reacting to the order issued by Bombay High Court, former Maharashtra chief minister and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis said, "I had said in the House yesterday that the order given by the state government to the MMRDA was wrong. Even if the land was clear, it would be wrong to move the car shed there, the committee formed on the subject reported. So why the state government's insistence in this regard?"
Fadnavis further added that just to satisfy its personal ego, the state government is making Mumbaikars suffer by delay in Metro. The state government has been literally slapped by the court, he further said.
Fadnavis also said that the government says that there should not be obstacles in Mumbai metro, but it was due to the decision of the state government.
(With agency inputs)
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