The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) told the Bombay High Court that all necessary procedures were followed for the construction of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray's memorial at Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
The civic body and the heritage committee filed their respective affidavits before the Bombay High Court which is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by social activist Bhagvanji Rayani challenging the Maharashtra government’s 2017 decision to convert the mayor's bungalow in Shivaji Park area to “Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial Museum”.
The bungalow, spread across 11,000 square meter has an unobstructed view of the Arabian Sea, has been the mayor's official residence for more than four decades. Now, a Byculla bungalow is now the Mayor's official residence.
The BMC had changed the reservation of the sea facing Mayor's Bungalow for Thackeray’s memorial in the Development Plan of 2034. Rs 100 crore were sanctioned for the "The Thackeray Memorial Trust," which would be headed by the Thackerays.
Rayani had alleged in his plea that Mayor's bungalow came under the Heritage II category. However, neither was the MHCC's permission taken nor were suggestions and objections called for.
However, the BMC contended in its affidavit all the procedures were followed and changing the label of Mayor's Bungalow to 'Bal Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak' and the land was deleted from Green Zone and included in the Residential Zone.
“I submit that the change in Reservation in Sanctioned DP 2034 has been done in accordance with the provisions of the MRTP Act and public suggestions & objections were called for as contemplated in the MRTP Act and only then the modifications were sanctioned,” read the affidavit.
The BMC has also stated that the MHCC has granted permission for memorial.
Bal Thackeray died aged 86 on November 17, 2012. In November 2015, then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that a memorial would come up at the Mayor's Bungalow.
In 2017, the state urban development department issued a notification that the bungalow site would be leased to the memorial trust — Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak Nyas — for 30 years at a nominal rate of Re 1 per year.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik has kept the PIL for further hearing on August 25.
