MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Bollywood actor Sonu Sood seeking interim relief against an unauthorized construction notice issued to him by BMC, in Mumbai.
A single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan dismissed the petition, granting no relief to the actor. Earlier, the City Civil Court had also rejected Bollywood actor petition.
According to the Bombay High Court order, the BMC is able to take action against the illegal alternation and change of user from residential to commercial by the actor. The BMC had issued the notice in October against Sonu Sood under section 53 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, with regard to alterations made to a six-storey residential building, in Juhu. In the notice, the BMC claimed that Sood was a "habitual offender," who was repeatedly trying to convert a residential building into a hotel.
The actor had played the significant roles in several films like Singh is King and Dabang, however, his popularity shot to fame when he extended financial help to migrants during the nationwide lockdown announced due to the Covid pandemic. He also arranged for buses to take poor migrant workers back from cities, to their villages.
In his petition before the High Court, Sood claimed he had not carried out any illegal construction in the building named 'Shakti Sagar.'
"The petitioner (Sood) has not made any changes in the building that warrants permission from the BMC. Only those changes that are allowed under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act has been done," advocate Amogh Singh, representing Sood had argued.
Through the petition, Sood had sought to quash the notice and to grant interim relief by not taking any 'coercive' action against him. He was granted interim relief.
While BMC represented by senior counsel Anil Sakhare stated in High court that Sood was a "habitual the offender" who wants to "enjoy the commercial proceeds of unauthorised work and therefore once again started re-constructing the demolished portion in order to make it operational as a hotel albeit illegally and without permission from the License department," the civic body said in the affidavit.
The BMC said that the building was constructed and modified contrary to the building plan. Moreover, neither Sood nor his wife Sonali had documents indicate they are the owners of the building, the civic body said.