HC junks Adarsh plea against MoD claim

Summary

The society had relied on an order passed by the General Governor Council and the Government of India in 1930.

The Bombay High Court Friday rejected a plea filed by the controversial Adarsh Housing Society opposing the title suit filed by the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) claiming ownership of the land the building stands in south Mumbai.

Justice Roshan Dalvi dismissed the application, which opposed the title suit on the ground that only the Defence Estate Officer (DEO) or the Military Estate Officer (MEO) can file title suits on behalf of the Defence Ministry. The society had relied on an order passed by the General Governor Council and the Government of India in 1930.

In its plea, the society had said that the suit filed by the MoD through the General Officer in Command (GOC) was “without sanction and authority in law as per the provisions contained in Military Lands Manual (MLM)”.

The MoD countered this arguing that the ministry was empowered to file and conduct title suits. The MoD, in December 2012, had filed a suit stating that it was the sole owner of the land on which the 31-storey Adarsh building stood and claimed the land was transferred to the housing society by fraud, collusion and connivance on the part of the society members, ministers and bureaucrats of the state government.

“Suits relating to military land outside the cantonment should be filed by MEOs. These rules, which are in the nature of guidelines, show who should file the suit. It does not exclude any other authority,” Justice Dalvi observed and dismissed the society’s plea as “wholly misconceived”.

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HC junks Adarsh plea against MoD claim