BREAKING: Bombay HC stays further demolition at Kangana Ranaut's Bandra office
The Bombay High Court has stayed any further demolition at actor Kangana Ranaut's office in Bandra. The order comes after Ranaut approached the court challenging the notice issued by the Mumbai civic body for 'illegal construction' at her bungalow, and sought a stay on the demolition process.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday demolished "illegal alterations" at the Bandra bungalow of Ranaut. Kangana drew ire of the ruling Shiv Sena after her recent remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
The high court has also asked the civic body to submit a response on Kangana's plea by tomorrow. The court will hear the matter again at 3 pm tomorrow. Till then, the BMC cannot carry out any further demolition at her office.
Meanwhile, Kangana rejected all the allegations and said there was no illegal construction at her office.
The fast-paced developments came barely hours after the BMC pasted a notice outside the office rejecting a reply filed by Kangana's lawyer, Rizwan Siddique, to the Tuesday (September 8) notice in which the civic body had listed a series of violations in the ongoing works in her office.
The BMC Executive Engineer said that he was satisfied that the (illegal) works were being carried out and the actress had failed to produce the permissions/approvals/sanction for it as per the BMC laws.
"Therefore, the work carried out by you as mentioned in the notice schedule is declared as unauthorized," said the Executive Engineer.
He also said that the ongoing work on the premises was not stopped and warned that it is "liable for forthwith demolition at your risk, cost and consequences".
The notice also cautioned that the actress could face imprisonment of minimum one month up to one year besides penalties.
As per the notice, the violations include: merging of two bungalows, converting a ground-floor toilet into an office cabin, converting a storeroom into a kitchen, making an unauthorised pantry in the ground floor, adding toilets near the storeroom and a parking area, illegal partitions in first floor living room, an illegal meeting room in the "puja" room, converting a balcony into a habitable area besides a floor extension, etc.
(With IANS inputs)
