[Mumbai Metro Rail] Bombay High Court sets aside grant of ownership of Kanjurmarg land to private firm

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday set aside its earlier order which had given green signal for grant of ownership of 6,000 acres of land at Mumbai's Kanjurmarg to a private company including a portion of land to be utilised for construction of metro car shed as part of ongoing Mumbai Metro Rail project..Single-judge Justice AK Menon allowed the application filed by Maharashtra government in a disposed of suit of 2006 by which the title of the disputed land came to be vested with a private company, Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts Pvt. Ltd. (AWP), through consent terms.”There was a larger responsibility on the parties to disclose entire facts to court and suppression of facts has compelled the court to pass the order. Undeniably fraud was caused due to the consent terms filed. In these circumstances I am not in a position to accept any contention made by the parties. The consent decree is set aside,“ the Court ruled..In October 2020, Adarsh Water Parks had obtained an order in the 2006 suit against a few persons. The firm had sought specific performance of an agreement which purportedly granted the firm development rights to the entire village of Kanjur. The High Court had while disposing of the suit noted that the dispute had been settled by the parties.A year after this, in November, one Jolly Anil India Ltd. filed an interim application in the suit objecting to the decision of the High Court. The company claimed that they had been leased nearly 80 acres of land from the government.The company added the State government as a party to their application after which the State came to know about the suit of 2006. In their interim application, Maharashtra government claimed that AWP did not have any rights over 1,800 acres of land of the disputed land as it belonged to the State. It also claimed that the private firm had fraudulently obtained the decree in their favour in the 2006 suit as the firm deliberately did not arraign State government as a party to the suit. .The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) filed its affidavit in support of the State’s application. The civic corporation stated that it had certain land parcels in its possession and that the private firm could not claim ownership over the same. The State and Central governments had allotted land parcels admeasuring over 100 hectares to BMC to establish the Kanjurmarg dumping ground for solid waste as per Supreme Court directions, BMC claimed in its affidavit. It added that of the 141 hectares, 23 hectares is mangrove land and as per the forest department’s decision, the State has retained the said area. Therefore, it added, that remaining land is in the exclusive possession of BMC.BMC also stated that certain land parcels had been reserved in the Kanjur village for a playground, garden, police station, affordable housing, shelters for homeless, maternity home, primary/secondary school, municipality market and multi-purpose community centre among others..Meanwhile, the Deputy Salt Commissioner and Defence Estates Officer of the Central government filed affidavits asserting ownership over over 220 acres and 1,600 acres of land respectively, which included the designated metro shed area. The affidavits denied all claims of the State and other parties over the right, title and possession of the land..[Read order]