New Delhi, September 16: Almost 35 years after a piece of land was reserved to be used as a Muslim burial ground in Mumbai, the issue is far from dead.
The cemetery falls in the middle of Mumbai International Airport land at Sahar, a fact that prompted the Supreme Court to stay a March-2009 order of the Bombay high court that had paved the way for its public access.
“Someone out there is a visionary to have planned a cemetery inside the airport. Given the number of air mishaps reported from around the world, there could well be a need for more of them inside airports,” a bench comprising justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and M K Sharma said to lighten the sombre mood. It evoked laughter in the court room.
The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) had moved the SC against the HC order. Its counsel senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, waited for the laughter to die down when he said the HC order if upheld, could spell disaster.
The SC bench agreed with him immediately and stayed the HC’s interim order which had given six months time on March 19 for the burial ground to be made operational. The deadline was approaching and hence MIAL moved the SC, said Rohtagi who cited security concerns over enabling public access to the cemetery through airport land.
The HC had allowed public access to the cemetery on a petition filed by Sahar Muslim Welfare Society.
“The demand for access through the Airports Authority of India land would divide it unnaturally and come in the way of planned development of the airport,” a MIAL spokesperson said. Rohtagi said it would also make way for more encroachments on airport land and added that other land could be given for the cemetery.
Pointing out the impediment, the cemetery and the access cutting through the airport would cause to aviation-related operations, the MIAL said, “A plot of land in the middle of the airport is not by any yardstick suitable or desirable for being used as a cemetery.”
The SC issued a notice to the BMC, the Airport Authority of India and others while staying the HC order.
According to MIAL, the 2000 sq-m plot was reserved for a cemetery. It had become obsolete with the passage of time as the plot had never been utilised as a cemetery.
As the land was only reserved and not yet allotted, no right of access could have been directed, MIAL said.
-Agencies