HC set aside the state’s decision to declare lands belonging to a majority of 184 property owners as private forest lands

Mumbai: Bombay HC has pulled up the state govt for its “obstinacy” over assuming that as of Aug 30, 1975, private lands with forests automatically became private forests under Private Forests Act despite Supreme Court mandating in 2014 that proper procedure be first followed.Setting aside the state’s decision to declare lands belonging to a majority of 184 property owners as private forest lands under a 50-year-old law, thus restricting their development potential, a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said the case backlog was piling up due to govt’s “defiant approach” as it was still not ready to accept the law laid down by the highest court.The declaration of any land as ‘private forest’ renders it unusable for any non-forest activity. The Act allows acquisition of forests on private lands after deeming them as private forests in larger public interest. In 2014, SC ruled that Section 3 of the Act requires that a notice be first issued and a hearing conducted, and yet state officials held on to a “misconception” for over a decade that lands with forests were ‘private forests’ and lay vested with the state.Most of the plots of the 184 owners are in Shahpur, Ulhasnagar and Murbad in Thane district.Directing the state to scrutinise all cases still pending before it, HC said only after SC’s ruling is applied can the revenue department pass directions “to correct revenue entries by restoring the name of the landowners”.The state claimed it had rights over these lands but in most cases, HC found that the state had not complied with mandatory procedures before such lands could be termed ‘private forest’ and vested with govt.HC observed that it is high time that the state is “conscious of the fact that if a flaw lies at its end”, given no service as prescribed by law, on the owners and no notification published or its published without following the procedure, “there can be no declaration about any land to be ‘private forest’ and there is no question of the name of the state govt being mutated in the land records”.Justice Dangre, authoring the judgment of July 23 which was made available on Aug 1, said the state “repeatedly adopted the same stand” in 2014 and again when another judgment was delivered in a separate case in 2025. “We are surprised to note… the state continued with its obstinacy even today, which is reflected through the affidavits filed before us.”

On Dec 29, 2017, a fire started at rooftop restaurants, 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro at Kamala Mills, where several patrons were enjoying a night out and claimed 14 lives

Mumbai: Holding that he had prima facie violated earlier travel conditions by failing to mark attendance and surrender his passport after returning to India, in a rare instance, a sessions court on Monday rejected a plea filed by the 2017 Kamala Mills fire case accused, Yug Tuli, a Mojo’s Bistro partner, seeking permission to travel to Muscat, Oman, from Aug 4 to Aug 11 for business purposes.Additional Sessions Judge Anil D Salunkhe rejected the plea after considering it and the prosecution’s reply filed through NM Joshi Marg police station.On Dec 29, 2017, a fire started at rooftop restaurants, 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro at Kamala Mills, where several patrons were enjoying a night out and claimed 14 lives. Tuli is charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and is out on bail.Tuli had earlier sought permission to travel abroad between Aug 2 and Aug 11. On Monday a fresh application was filed requesting that, instead of the earlier travel request, he be permitted to travel to Muscat from Aug 4 to Aug 11 for business.The prosecution opposed the request, submitting that Tuli had already been granted permission on June 17 to travel abroad from June 18 to July 19 to Bangkok, China, Nepal, Muscat and Dubai, and again from Aug 12 to Aug 20 to Colombo, Sri Lanka. That permission was subject to conditions, including marking attendance and surrendering the passport at NM Joshi Marg police station within three days of returning to India. According to the prosecution, Tuli did not comply with those conditions after returning from the earlier foreign travel. It submitted that he “neither marked his attendance nor submit passport within three days after returning India on or before July 19, 2026…” and had sought fresh permission while allegedly retaining the passport.Among the 12 who are facing the culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge are 1Above’s owners Kripesh Sanghvi, Abhijeet Mankar and Jigar Sanghavi, Mojo’s Bristo partners Tuli and Yug Pathak, managers of 1Above- Kevin Bawa and Libson Lopez and Mojo’s Bistro’s waiter, Sayyed Ali. The others include fire officer Rajendra Patil and Utkarsh Pandey, who supplied hookah to 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro, Dinesh Mahale, sub-engineer, G south ward, BMC, and Sandeep Shinde, assistant divisional fire officer, Worli Division. One more accused, Vishal Kariya, will face the less serious charge of harbouring an offender. He is accused of helping the absconding Sanghvi brothers and Mankar before they were finally arrested by the police.

Siddhivinayak temple trustees said a staffer arrested for theft was affiliated with Shiv Sena (UBT)

Mumbai: The trustees of Siddhivinayak temple have refused to resign in the wake of the controversy involving alleged embezzlement of temple funds and blamed staffers appointed by the erstwhile dispensation under Uddhav Thackeray for a series of thefts. MNS chief Raj Thackeray had alleged that Rs 18 crore was being stolen from the temple’s public donations every year.Calling themselves whistleblowers, the trustees, led by chairman and senior Shiv Sena politician Sada Sarvankar, told reporters that they caught nine employees for theft in March and wrote to the law and judiciary department seeking a probe. “Once we stopped the scam, the temple’s income increased from Rs 40-45 lakh to Rs 80-90 lakh per month,” said Sarvankar.The law and judiciary department has asked the temple to furnish a report and reportedly ordered two senior accused officials, who handle the temple’s day-to-day management, to reply to its notice within seven days.Asked if the trustees would take accountability and resign, like Champat Rai and Anil Kumar Mishra did over the Ram temple donations theft, Sarvankar and another trustee, Rahul Londhe, refused. “Why should we resign? For exposing the case?” Sarvankar said.An employee, Rajendra Pendurkar, who had been working at the temple since 2009, was arrested in March for stealing cash from the donation box. Within a few days, eight staffers were arrested for stealing money through a “skimming” racket. All arrested employees were permanent staffers and Rs 80,000 was recovered from them. The sum embezzled is expected to be far higher.Sarvankar claimed that Pendurkar was affiliated to his rival Shiv Sena (UBT) shakha in Prabhadevi and was hired by former mayor Vishakha Raut of Sena (UBT).“We did not write a letter to deputy CM Shinde (as claimed by Raj) seeking an inquiry. We approached the law and judiciary department for an audit and probe,” said Londhe. Sarvankar claimed this was a plot to defame Shinde and the temple trust.Sarvankar and Londhe said shortcomings such as employees not being frisked upon exit, touts taking money to facilitate darshan, CCTV footage not being monitored will be addressed.A series of thefts and misdemeanours have plagued Siddhivinayak temple over the years. In 2021, a group of flower-sellers and shopkeepers, acting as touts, were arrested for arranging out-of-turn darshan for devotees in return for a fee. The fraud was run online by booking all available slots for darshan.

Bhiwandi: Police probing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak said that the accused stole defective copies from a disposal box and concealed them inside their shoes before passing them on to the alleged kingpin of the racket.Investigators said question papers with minor printing defects or ink marks were discarded in a disposal box inside the printing press. During the investigation, police found that the disposal area lacked adequate surveillance, enabling two workers to allegedly retrieve the rejected papers before they were destroyed.According to police sources, Babulal Kushwaha, a printing press employee for nearly 20 years, allegedly stole the defective question papers from the disposal box during the printing process. He allegedly took the help of Naresh Kumar Mahaur alias Niki, a temporary worker employed on an hourly basis, to conceal the papers beneath the soles of their shoes and smuggle them out of the premises.Investigators said that the papers were then handed over to former printing press employee Sonu Diwakar, who passed them on to Sanjay Sharma before they finally reached the alleged mastermind, Bijendra Gupta.Police sources said Bijendra had earlier tasked Sonu with monitoring the printing press and alerting him whenever confidential examination papers were printed. Sonu allegedly maintained contact with Kushwaha and Niki, who informed him once TET paper printing began.Investigators further claimed that Kushwaha, who reportedly earned around Rs 15,000 a month, and Niki, who was paid Rs 45 per hour and earned about Rs 400-500 a day during peak work periods, were allegedly promised financial rewards for their role.Police alleged that Bijendra initially paid the two around Rs 8,000 to facilitate the theft and assured them that he would buy them plots from the proceeds earned after selling the leaked papers.Meanwhile, after completing 15 days of police custody, all 15 accused were produced before a Bhiwandi court on Monday. The court remanded them in judicial custody.DCP Pawan Bansod dismissed news reports that said the accused were planning to leak examination papers for recruitment of assistant professors in colleges and universities.