MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked BMC to deposit Rs 12 crore with 5 per cent interest and posted for further hearing a petition filed by the National Sports Club of India (NSCI), which is claiming Rs 40 crore from the civic administration for letting out its premises in Worli for a Jumbo Covid quarantine centre during the 2020 pandemic.Last week, the HC division bench of Justice RV Ghuge and Justice Abhay Mantri directed Mumbai chief Bhushan Gagrani to personally file an affidavit to back the civic body’s claim on the charges in the dispute. The HC sought the affidavit after noting the stand taken by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was that it did not use the area around the jumbo quarantine centre and that an assistant commissioner made “an erroneous calculation”.The club, represented by counsel Vivek Kantawala, claimed the BMC owes it Rs 40 crore for using its premises for 30 months and referred to a 2020 circular of the civic body. NSCI petitioned the HC over non-payment of the charges.On Tuesday, BMC, represented by senior counsel Atul Damle submitted Gagrani’s affidavit, which said the Corporation computed “Rs 12,66,56,278 as token compensation payable to the NSCI” in 2023, which the then civic chief approved. He also said that the petitioner is not the plot owner but “is only a lessee of the Municipal Corporation; therefore, the token compensation… is fair, just and reasonable”.Gagrani also said there was “no defined formula adopted by the Corporation to calculate the payment” for using its land and, as its lessee, the 2020 circular cited by NSCI did not apply. The circular does not clarify land ownership—whether private or BMC-owned—hence, at a meeting in January 2023, the BMC decided to use open land rates for calculating a “token compensation” to NSCI, its lessee, and arrived at the Rs 12 crore figure. Kantawala opposed such calculation on Tuesday.The HC posted the matter in the 3rd week of March for further hearing, but directed BMC to deposit the amount by March 16.
