Bombay High Court quashes BMC's refusal to NCP leader's mandal organising Chhath Puja at Mumbai ground

A vacation bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed an order of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) refusing permission to a registered society headed by a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rakhee Jadhav to hold Chhath Puja at a Mumbai ground [Durga Parmeshwari Seva Mandal & Ors v. Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai & Ors.]..The bench of Justices NJ Jamadar and Gauri Godse observed that the order revoking the permission to conduct the function on October 30 and 31 to Durga Parmeshwari Seva Mandal without spelling out those breaches suffers from the vice of manifest arbitrariness and unreasonableness.The High Court also set aside another order by BMC which had permitted another society to organise the puja, which the petition claimed, was granted without application of mind and on the basis of a letter sent by a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician. .The petitioner had sought permissions to construct artificial ponds and hold religious gatherings on the ground during the Chhath puja.The petitioner claimed that the residents of the ward of the NCP leader had benefitted from the earlier religious gatherings and thus, such permission should have been granted in favour of the petitioner.It assured the Court that it will comply with the necessary formalities and and bear all expenses.The Mandal also sought permission to construct a stage and mandap on the said ground on the days of chhath pooja.It was also contended that the BMC granted identical permission to the other Mandal.On October 19, the NCP leader also received a letter from BMC at her residence which allegedly stated that they wanted to cancel the permission granted to the petitioners.The present petition sought cancellation of the permission granted to the other Mandal and instead requested that necessary permissions be granted to the petitioner mandal to perform Chhath puja on the specific ground.They also raised grievance against the Mumbai Police for denying no objection certificate (NOC) to the petitioner despite having NOCs from the traffic and fire department..Advocate Aniruddh Joshi for the petitioner claimed that BMC had not issued them any notice seeking compliance or granted them a hearing before cancelling their permission. Joshi also argued that the permission to the other organisation was purely granted on the basis of a letter from BJP leader and the other organisation did not even file an application for the same.BMC, however, responded stating that there were certain pre-requisites before granting permission, which the petitioner mandal did not fulfil, and, hence, the permission was not granted. Advocate Amogh Singh appearing for the other organisation also opposed the petition pointing out that his client had ensured it has all pre-requisite NOCs and even paid the charges required to conduct the function..The Bench, however, asked whether BMC had tried to inform the petitioner about their documentation not being in place, to which BMC had no response. The Bench also did not accept the submissions of the respondent that the petitioner had flouted rules during a Ganesh Chaturthi function. In this regard, it noted that the BMC had permitted the same mandal to conduct Navratri functions on the ground.The Court, therefore, quashed both BMC orders. The Court also directed the Mumbai Police to take a decision on the NOC sought by the petitioner at the earliest..[Read order]