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Justifying its decision to award 100 crores of rupees to the proposed Thackeray Bal Memorial, the Maharashtra government said Thursday at the Bombay High Court that it was within its purview to allocate a plot of land or land. money to a monument for a personality and that he could not be questioned in court.
The government presented its case before divisional judges, Chief Justices NH Patil and Nd Jamdar, who were hearing two petitions challenging the state's decision to turn the bungalow from the mayor of downtown Mumbai into a memorial for the founder of Shiv Sena, Bal Thackeray.
The petitions were filed by activist Bhagwanji Rayani and the NGO Jan Mukti Morcha in April 2017, when the government had proposed to set up the memorial.
When petitions were heard for Thursday's hearing, petitioners' lawyers, Pradeep Havnur and Uday Warunjikar, sought to amend pleas to also challenge the BJP-led government's decision to award 100 crores. rupees at the memorial. The decision was made earlier this week.
Havnur argued that the amount could be used for other important issues facing the state, while Warunjikar baderted that the whole mechanism was being mobilized for a particular.
Lead counsel Milind Sathe, who represented the government, opposed the petitions, saying it was the state's discretion as to how much land or money to allocate to a memorial.
"It is up to the state government to decide whether a person deserves a memorial or a statue.These state acts can not be challenged in court," said Sathe.
The court, while subscribing to this proposal, however, stated that the court could question the manner in which a decision was made.
It allowed the petitioners to alter their arguments to challenge the allocation of 100 crores of rupees and ordered the government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file their affidavits by 12 February.
The court also sent a notice to a government body called "Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak Samiti", created in September 2016 to carry out the work of the memorial, in order to obtain its response on this subject.
The petitioners also raised objections to the creation of the trust and stated that of the 11 members, six were private individuals.
"The six permanent members include Uddhav Thackeray (leader of Shiv Sena) and (his son) Aaditya Thackeray.It is a government trust, how can one make permanent members of individuals? ? " Asked Warunjikar.
The petitions also challenged a recent amendment to a provision of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, authorizing the head of the civic agency to lease any property owned by the BMC at a nominal rate of 1. Re per year.
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