The Bombay High Court has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and a number of interventions challenging the sale of the land on which industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, Antilia, is located. The court stated that the issue has been fully adjudicated and does not warrant interference.
A division bench led by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep V Marne delivered the ruling on July 28. “The issue with regard to the nature of the property in question has already been adjudicated. No interference is called for in the instant PIL. The same is therefore dismissed,” the court stated firmly.
The PIL dates back to 2007, when Abdul Mateen, a resident of Jalna, filed the petition to challenge the 2003 sale of a 4,532.39 square meter plot on Altamount Road, Mumbai, to Antilia Commercial. Mateen demanded that the land be returned to the Maharashtra State Waqf Board, alleging irregularities in the sale process.
The case remained inactive for nearly a decade until it resurfaced in 2017 with new interventions, including one by advocate Syed Ejaz Abbas ‘Naqvi’. However, following the dismissal, Naqvi expressed dissatisfaction, stating he had not been heard. The court dismissed this objection, clarifying that the order had already been passed and could not be recalled at his request.
Representing Antilia Commercial, senior advocate Milind Sathe argued that the same petition had been dismissed, earlier with costs imposed. He relied on a Supreme Court judgment Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs vs. Shaikh Yusuf Bhai Chawla which the Court concluded had determined the legal character of the property raised in the petition. The High Court recognized and accepted these submissions.
The disputed land was originally owned by Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Yateemkhana, an orphanage dedicated to underprivileged children of the Khoja community, which was registered as a trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act. Antilia Commercial claimed this was a secular trust and did not come under the jurisdiction of the Waqf Board.
However, in 2004, the Maharashtra State Waqf Board claimed authority over the property. Antilia Commercial consistently responded that it had gotten all the required statutory approvals at the time of purchasing the land, including the permissions required from the Charity Commissioner.
The Delhi High Court’s dismissal of the PIL has effectively brought closure to the centuries of legal tussle regarding Antilia’s land ownership confirming that there no further judicial review is required on the matter.
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