Metro car shed disputed land in Mumbai owned by Union government: Centre tells Bombay HC
The Hindu
The Centre and the Maharashtra government are locked in a dispute over the ownership of the said land
The Centre on June 6 submitted an affidavit in the Bombay High Court, asserting its ownership and title over a land in Mumbai's Kanjurmarg area, where the Maharashtra government had proposed to construct a Metro car shed, and claimed that a decree in the name of a private firm with respect to the land was obtained fraudulently and should be held as null and void.
The Centre and the Maharashtra government are locked in a dispute over the ownership of the said land. The State government had proposed to construct a car shed for its Metro project on about 100 acres of the land.
In March this year, the Maharashtra government learnt that the High Court had in October 2020 granted the decree of over 6,000-acre land in the Kanjurmarg area to a private firm- Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts.
Following this, the State government filed an application in the HC, challenging the decree granted and sought for it to be held as illegal.
On Monday, the Union government's salt and defence departments submitted their affidavits in response to the application, wherein the Centre reiterated that it owned the land. The land was in the Centre's possession, the affidavits said. The affidavits also claimed that the decree granted to the Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts Private Limited in October 2020 was a "fraud played on the court and the government".
"The Union government denies that the applicant (Maharashtra government) or any other party has any right, title and interest or possession of the land," the Union government's Defence department said in its affidavit. The affidavits claimed the Centre learnt about the decree only after the Maharashtra government filed the application in March this year.
A single bench of Justice A.K. Menon posted the matter for further hearing on June 13. The State government had in its application claimed that over 1,800 acre of the disputed land belonged to it and the private firm did not have any right on it, adding the order was “fraudulently” obtained by the private firm.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.