Bombay high court refuses to interfere with govt decision on site for Balasaheb Thackeray memorial
Shiv Sena
chief Bal Thackeray at the mayor's bungalow in Shivaji Park.
"We do not find that any valid ground of challenge is made out…'' said Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne, dismissing four PILs.
Senior advocate Sunip Sen and Uday Warunjikar, for two petitioners, said their clients are not against the memorial to commemorate Thackeray. However, they challenged the site, shifting of reservation, composition of the trust, and charge of nominal annual rent of Re 1 for land valued at hundreds of crores.
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The judges said the choice of site made by the state govt, with approval of landowner BMC, would "undoubtedly fall in the realm of policy" and "outside scope of judicial review". A high-powered committee's recommendations were deliberated upon by the govt and after more than a year, it approved the memorial at the mayor's bungalow. They said it was a "well-considered decision".
They said the only change in the DP is change of label of 'mayor's bungalow' into 'Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak' and deletion of green zone and substitution by residential zone.
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The changes are effected after following due procedure under Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act and "we are unable to trace any procedural impropriety...".
Since the memorial is to honour Thackeray, the judges did not find "any arbitrariness" in the govt's decision to choose three members of the political party and two of Thackeray's family to be part of the board of trustees.
The contention about a valuable piece of land being offered to the trust virtually free of cost "does not appeal".
"Any piece of land in the city of Mumbai is bound to be valuable and therefore it is not for this court to decide which land needs to be chosen for setting up the memorial...," the court said, adding that BMC would continue to own the land leased to the trust for 30 years.
The judges noted that work on the memorial is "virtually complete by now". From pictures submitted by senior advocate Darius Khambata and advocate Joel Carlos, for Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial Public Trust, the judges said it "shows that the grandiose structure of mayor's bungalow has not only been kept intact, but has been restored". "Its heritage significance is not disturbed," the court said.
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