Bombay HC stays FIR against Kapil Sharma

The Bombay High Court on Thursday stayed the FIR against actor-comedian Kapil Sharma that had been registered over allegations of illegal construction in Sharma’s Goregaon flat.

The Court’s decision came after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) informed a bench led by Justice Naresh Patil that it had decided to withdraw all litigation from the lower court against Sharma and actor Irrfan Khan over alleged illegal construction in the actors’ respective flats in a Goregaon highrise.

The Court also directed Sharma, Khan, and other petitioners in the case to file within two weeks, a reply addressing BMC’s allegations. It directed all parties to resolve the issue within five weeks.

The bench also directed the Corporation to grant a “personal hearing” to Sharma.

The bench was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by Sharma, Khan, two other flat owners, and the developer of the building, DLH Pvt Ltd.

The petitioners had challenged a demolition notice issued by the corporation in September last year, claiming that the same was arbitrary and illegal.

They told HC that in April 2015, BMC had issued them a showcause notice saying that occupants of several flats between the fourth and the 16th floor of the building had misused FSI regulations and “extended the liveable spaces allotted to them by encroaching upon elevation features.”

A civil suit was then filed in the lower court following the April notice and the petitioners were granted interim relief after the lower court restrained BMC from taking any coercive action.

The petitioners claimed before HC that considering that the civil suit was pending and an interim relief was granted, the BMC could not have issued the second notice (in September 2016) over the same allegations.

On Thursday, the corporation responded by saying that after “consulting with its legal experts,” it had decided to withdraw the April 2015 notice.

The pending civil suit thus, becomes infructuous.

Justice Patil accepted the Corporation’s submissions and also decided to dispose of the case in HC over the September notice.

Thus, while no cases over the two notices on the said Goregaon flats remain pending in the court anymore, the parties will have to resolve the dispute among themselves within the five weeks deadline set by HC.