Veteran actor Dilip Kumar got a big relief from the Supreme Court on Wednesday when he was allowed to reclaim his prime land situated in Mumbai’s Pali Hill area from a real estate developer who failed to honour an agreement to develop the land and instead blocked the actor from entering his own property.
Bringing a quietus to the dispute pending between the yesteryear superstar and the developer Prajita Developers Private Limited, the apex Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer directed 95-year old Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar to deposit with the court a sum of Rs 20 crore as full and final settlement. Once the superstar makes the payment, the court directed the developer to remove all armed guards from the 2,412 square yard property situated at Plot No 16, Pali Hill in Bandra and hand over possession to the actor.
To ensure compliance of its order, the Bench directed the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai to nominate an officer at the time of handing over to prepare a panchnama that will be later produced as proof by the builder in the Supreme Court to withdraw the amount of Rs 20 crore.
The dispute had its genesis in an agreement signed by Kumar on June 23, 2006 with two real estate firms – m/s Sharyans Resources Private Limited and Goldbeam Construction Private Limited. The agreement was to develop the land in question within a period of two years from the time when commencement certificate (CC) is issued. Each developer would have got 25 per cent of the proceeds from the development of the property. On April 24, 2010, Sharyans assigned its share in the property to Prajita Developers, bringing it into the picture.
The company was clearly at fault as records revealed that despite the fact that the authorities issued the CC on September 22, 2008, the developers did not take any step to initiate construction at the site. Kumar terminated the agreement on October 8, 2015, beginning a round of litigation in courts as the developer opted for arbitration.
Appearing for the actor, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi proposed to the court for a one-time settlement of dispute by payment of Rs 20 crore to which the developer did not agree. Finally the Bench sealed the deal and allowed Kumar to enjoy possession of his property within his lifetime. The court, however, allowed the developer to seek damages by sending the dispute for arbitration before a former Supreme Court judge, Justice (Retd) P Venkatarama Reddy.
