No coercive action against Kapil Sharma on FIR: HC to Mumbai police

The Bombay high court restrained the city police from taking any coercive action against actor Kapil Sharma, based on the FIR registered against him alleging illegal construction in his Goregaon flat.

A bench led by justice Naresh Patil also disposed of the bunch of pleas filed in the high court by Sharma, actor Irrfan Khan, who resides in the same building, some other residents, and the developer of the building, challenging a notice issued to them by the BMC in September 2016 over the same allegations.

Patil, however, directed Sharma’s counsel, advocate Pradeep Thorat, and the other petitioners to file a reply to the BMC notice within three weeks. He also directed the corporation to grant a “personal hearing” to Sharma.

The directions came after the BMC informed the bench that it had decided to withdraw the show-cause notice issued to Sharma, Khan, and the others in April 2015.

In the notice, the corporation had claimed that Sharma and other occupants of several flats between the fourth and the 16th floor of the said building had misused FSI regulations and extended the liveable spaces allotted to them by encroaching upon common decorative spaces and elevation features of the building. It had asked them to explain why the illegal portions must not be demolished.

Following the notice, however, the developer of the building, DLH Pvt ltd, and some occupants of the building, filed a civil suit in the lower court and secured interim relief by way of an order restraining the BMC from taking any coercive action.

In September 2016, however, the BMC issued fresh demolition notices to Sharma, Khan, the developer, and some other occupants.

Sharma and the others then filed a plea in the High Court challenging the September notice.

They argued that considering that the civil suit was pending and interim relief had been granted by the lower court, the BMC could not have issued the second notice (in September 2016) over the same allegations.

In the previous hearing, Justice Patil had noted that it was inappropriate to carry on with the litigation in the city civil court as well as the high Court over the same issue and had directed the corporation to make up its mind.

On Thursday, the corporation said that after consulting with its legal experts, it had decided to withdraw the April show cause notice, as a result of which, the pending civil suit thus, becomes infructuous.

Patil accepted the corporation’s submissions and also decided to dispose of the case in HC over the September notice.

Thus, while no cases over the two notices on the said Goregaon flats remain pending in the court anymore, the parties will have to resolve the dispute as per the HC order.