Bombay High Court Imposes Hefty Costs Of ₹30 Lakhs On Two Litigants, Advocates For Restoring Petitions Dismissed In 2020

The Bombay High Court recently imposed a hefty costs of Rs 30 lakhs on two petitioners and their advocates for restoring their writ petitions filed in the year 2019, which were dismissed for not removing office objections.

Single-judge Justice Kamal Khata imposed Rs 15 lakhs costs on Mahatma Phule Cooperative Housing Society (Proposed) and their advocates along with Rs 15 lakhs on Unity Land Consultancy (Developer) and their advocates.

In an order passed on July 15, Justice Khata recorded, "Both the Petitioners' and their Advocates in Writ Petition (L) No.3075 of 2019 (Mahatma Phule CHS) in Writ Petition (L) No.4169 of 2019 (Unity Land Consultancy) shall pay a costs of Rs.15,00,000/- each, aggregating to ₹ 30,00,000/-, for restoration of their respective Petitions, that were dismissed for non-removal of office objections under Rule 986 of the High Court (Original Side) Rules, 1980."

As per the order, the bench has ordered Mahatma Phule CHS (Proposed) and their advocates to pay Rs 7.5 lakhs each (totalling to Rs 15 lakhs) to Poor Box Charity Fund, K.E.M. Hospital, Mumbai.

The other set of petition by Unity Land Consultancy and their lawyers are ordered to pay Rs 7.5 lakh each (totalling Rs 15 lakhs) towards Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG).

"The aforementioned costs shall be paid within two weeks from the date of uploading of this Order on the website of Bombay High Court. Upon payment of costs, the delay of 1959 days stands condoned, and the Petitions shall be restored to file," Justice Khata made it clear.

These two petitions pertain to the redevelopment of a slum, which was proposed for redevelopment as far back as 2006, wherein initially one Shrushti Developers was appointed in 2006 but no work could be carried out till 2018. Therefore, the proposed society's members made an application before the authorities to terminate the contract of Shrushti Developers and thereafter in a special general body meeting on April 13, 2018, Unity Land Consultancy was appointed as a developer.

The Unity Land Consultancy, then submitted its proposed redevelopment plan to the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in July 2018 and the authority also accepted the scrutiny fees from the said developer.

However, some disgruntled members of the slum, formed the Mahatma Phule CHS and challenged the appointment of Unity Land Consultancy. The Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC) initially entertained the plea by Mahatma Phule CHS and passed an order against Unity Land Consultancy in October 2019. This order was then challenged before the Bombay High Court in 2019 by the developer.

On February 6, 2020, single-judge Justice Shirish Gupte passed an interim order staying the order of the AGRC, passed in October 2019.

The two petitions, one by Unity and the other by Mahatma Phule CHS, were pending since then and were dismissed for not clearing office objections in 2020.

The petitioners therefore, urged the bench of Justice Khata to restore their petitions, which was by a delay of nearly five years. Therefore, the judge imposed a hefty cost of Rs 30 lakhs on both the petitioners and their lawyers.

Appearance:

Advocates Swapnil Bangur and Shailesh Pal appeared for Mahatma Phule CHS (Proposed).

Advocates Kavan Dua and Ashwin Tripathi represented by Unity Land Consultancy.

Advocates Yogesh Patil and Abhijit Patil represented by AGRC.

Case Title: Mahatma Phule CHS (Proposed) vs Mahatma Phule CHS (Proposed) [Writ Petition (Loding) 3075 of 2019]

Click Here To Read/Download Order