A 93-year-old Mumbai resident got relief after a long wait of almost eight decades when the Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the state government to return to her two south Mumbai flats that were requisitioned in the early 1940s.
Alice Dsouza will be given back two flats of 500sqft and 600sqft in area, on the first floor of Ruby Mansion on Barrack Road, behind Metro Cinema. In March 1942, Ruby Mansion was requisitioned for the ‘defence of India’. The possession of the flats in Ruby Mansion was handed back to owners gradually except for the first floor.
Dismissing the current occupants’ petitions, Justices Ramesh Dhanuka and Milind Sathaye directed the state to hand over ‘vacant and peaceful possession of subject matter premises’ to the petitioner-owner Dsouza within 8 weeks, according to a TOI report.
On July, 17, 1946, the Governor of Bombay had directed DSouza’s father HS Dias to let out the premises to DS Laud, a government employee, under the Defence of India Rules. On July 24, 1946, the collector ordered to release Dias’ flats from requisition but the possession was never handed back to him.
In June 2010, the controller of accommodation directed Laud’s children Mangesh and Kumud to vacate Dias’ flats under the Bombay Land Requisition Act, 1948. The order was upheld by the appellate authority in August 2011.
In 2012, Mangesh’s widow and their three children, Kumud, who subsequently passed away, and her grandson moved to the Bombay High Court.
Advocate Sharan Jagtiani, who appeared for the occupants argued that the Bombay Land Requisition Act came into force on April 11, 1948, and the July 1946 orders of requisition and de-requisition were prior to it. Therefore, the orders to vacate were null and void and without jurisdiction.
The judges, however, agreed with Dsouza’s advocates, Mustafa Doctor and Nigel Quraishy, that “far and wide rights” are given to the state government under the Bombay Land Requisition Act, which would cover earlier requisitions.
“Therefore, we have no hesitation to hold that in the present case, the subject matter premises have continued to be under requisition and it cannot be said that the Bombay Land Requisition Act will not apply,” the Bombay High Court said.
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