Indore: Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday ordered for maintaining status quo of Regal Talkies building, days after Indore Municipal Corporation took its possession as lease of the land allocated to the theatre operator had expired.
Regal theatre has had a long-cherished history. It was so popular among Indoreans that square near to the theatre was named after it. It became a landmark of the city.
Justice SC Sharma ordered for status quo on the plea filed by the theatre management through advocate Vibhor Khandelwal.
Khandelwal said that they informed the court that a petition into the matter of land lease is pending so the building of theatre should not be demolished until the petition is disposed of.
The advocate stated that they feared the IMC would demolish the building.
After listening to both the parties, the court directed IMC to maintain status quo of the building and fixed next hearing on November 7.
That means, the IMC, which was planning to demolish the theatre building would have to wait till the court’s go ahead. The authorities plan to build the metro station office in its place.
Curtains had come down on 85-year-old Regal Talkies, one of the oldest cinema halls of the city, on September 17 as IMC took back possession of 23947 sq ft land allocated to the theatre over eight decades ago.
On September 7, the ADM citing MP Lok Parisar (Bedakhali) Adhiniyam 1974 had passed an order directing IMC to take back possession of the land on which Regal Talkies was running, within 48 hours.
Following this, the leaseholders had moved court stating that a petition over the lease of the theatre is pending with the court since 2012 and possession of land should be not taken back until the final decision on the matter. But their plea was rejected.
