MUMBAI: The Centre has reiterated in the Bombay high court that it owned the land title to a large plot in Kanjurmarg where the state proposed to construct a Metro car shed.
The Centre’s affidavit in which it made the assertion was in response to an application filed by the Maharashtra government in a 2006 dispute over the land title. The state had proposed to construct a car shed for its Metro project on about 100 acres of the land.
The state moved the HC after it learnt of an October 2020 consent term decree (an order based on consent of both parties to a dispute) for the 6,000-acre land in Kanjurmarg area in favour of a private firm named Adarsh Water Parks and Resorts Centre which had in 2006 filed a suit against one Abdul Rashid Rehman Yusuf over the land.
The Centre in an affidavit filed by C Raghu, Deputy Salt Commissioner, said the “consent decree so far as it deals with the subject land is a fraud played upon this HC as well as the Centre… the consent terms ought to be set aside as being void…” The salt commissioner owns the right, title and interest over the Kanjurmarg land and it has also acquired other lands for the “public purpose of construction of salt works at Bhandup and departmental offices and other buildings,” said the affidavit.
It said the Centre learnt of the consent terms only when the State filed its application in March 2022 and made the Centre a party to the dispute over the Kanjur land’s ownership. The Centre denied that the State or even the private parties have any right over the land. The Centre said the land was acquired by it under notifications in the year dating back to 1906, 1917 and 1920 for the public purposes of salt works.
The affidavit also said that an enquiry held by a tehsildar of Kurla in May 1969 held that the Centre had acquired survey number 275 (pt) and was in possession of the land. In an appeal against his order, the sub divisional officer of Mumbai Suburban District in October 1969 upheld the order. The Centre has sought that the consent decree be set aside and urged for orders to declare that all rights over the land vests with the Centre exclusively.
The state had in its application claimed that over 1,800 acres 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. A single bench of Justice A K Menon which heard the matter on Monday, posted the matter for further hearing on June 13.
