Hearing petitions against the proposed Metro car shed at Aarey Colony for the second day on Wednesday, the Bombay High Court expressed its disgruntlement at the long-winded manner in which one of the petitions was drafted, terming it a "mess".
A division bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre Wednesday pulled up Vanshakti NGO and its lawyer, Gayatri Singh, over the drafting of their petition seeking court's directions to the government to declare Aarey a forest area.
CJ Nandrajog told them to draft a "meaningful" petition with a clear view of the plea they wanted to make, rather that filing petitions "left, right and centre" . He also criticised its "poor" language.
As senior counsel Singh was telling the court about the flora and fauna found in Aarey, the court asked her not to beat about the bush, apparently finding the petition off-point and rhetorical.
In a cue to the petitioner, CJ Nandrajog said, "Activism needs patience. One must hit the hammer at the right time. What I could understand is it is not right to raise right thing at the wrong time."
Then, referring to a 1996 Supreme Court judgment in the T N Godavarman case which directed Kerala to decide borders of a forest area in the Malabar region, Chief Justice Nandrajog asked Maharashtra state if it had demarcated any such borders.
He also pointed out discrepancies in the city survey numbers provided in the notification by the state to advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for project executor Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL).
The CJ also questioned the state about the dispute on the total area of Aarey Colony — over 30 hectares as claimed by the state or 60 hectares as per the petitioner.
Before concluding the hearing for the day, the bench directed the petitioner to fight the case in a sequential manner. He noted, "Nothing is clear. Two days have passed and we are still doing cohesion of facts. We haven't even started with the hearing."
Alternative Site
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Petitioner pointed out 41 hectares of undisputed land in Kanjurmarg, recommended by a technical panel to construct the Metro car shed as an alternative to Aarey
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Court asked why a plea had been filed seeking its permission to use the plot when there was no dispute
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| On Tuesday, HC said it would first examine the question of whether Aarey Colony is a forest; on Wednesday, it asked for pleas to be drafted in a sequential manner |
When the petitioner mentioned that 41 hectares of undisputed land in Kanjurmarg had been recommended by the technical committee to construct the Metro car shed as an alternative to Aarey, the court asked why a plea had been filed seeking its permission to use the plot when there was no dispute.
The BMC's lawyer agreed that there was, indeed, government land spread across 41 hectares in Kanjurmarg.
However, MMRCL needs to build pillars on a disputed plot to access the 41 hectares of land, the lawyer replied.
But the petitioners pointed out that the pillars were being built on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, which also goes through the disputed plot — the court had permitted that years ago.
The bench observed that in Delhi, a Metro depot is 10 kilometres from one line and another is in the middle of another line, which raises the question why Mumbai can't do the same.
The court has now called for the papers related to the Kanjurmarg site to be submitted for perusal tomorrow.
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