HC SEALS BANDRA PROPERTY, SAYS SALE TO BUILDER WAS NOT VALID:Hindustan Times

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has upheld a Central government order to seal a prime property in Bandra that originally belonged to two Pakistani nationals, and was later bought by a city developer.

The division bench of justice SC Dharmadhikari and justice GS Kulkarni last week dismissed the developer Jay Construction Company’s petition challenging a May 2014 order of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The bench said the MHA’s stand was valid — that acts of omission and commission by the then Custodian of Enemy Property had resulted in the transfer of the 2,862sqm plot.

The Custodian of Enemy Property is a government department with the power to appropriate property in India owned by Pakistani nationals. The department came into being after the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

In this case, the plot at Chapel Road was bought by Mariam Tabani and her brother Aziz in September 1956.

The siblings, however, moved out of India a few years later.

In October 1980, Jay Construction Company said it entered an agreement to buy the property for Rs4.50 lakh, and once the property was conveyed to it in 1999, it got the required approvals and constructed a 10-storey building.

In January 2004, the firm said it got a letter from the Custodian of Enemy Property saying the property was under its control. A showcause notice followed and the matter was referred to the MHA.

The MHA said t he t hen Custodian had acted in favour of the firm, which means the transfer of the plot was invalid. Jay Construction Company had challenged this order.

But the HC said, “That document or deed vitiated by fraud perpetuated on the public at large cannot confer any right, title and interest in favour of any person, the purchasers as well.”