Mumbai : The Bombay High Court, on Monday asked the state and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file an additional affidavit stating its eviction proceedings against private schools on government land in suburban Mumbai.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A K Menon was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Ali Asgar Mohammed Tehsildar, stating that 14 private schools have been constructed on government and semi-government land in Malad West. The PIL states that several complaints were made to the BMC about the illegal encroachment, but they did not take any action and so the PIL was filed seeking directions from the court.
Advocate Saurabh Raikar for the petitioner said, “As per the order passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah in February, the BMC had stated that six schools are built on private land, which we don’t have a complaint against, but what about the remaining eight schools that are built on government land?”
The affidavit filed by the BMC in the last hearing had also stated that one school was built on BMC land, one on Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) land and six on government and semi-government land.
