The Bombay high court on Thursday dismissed actor Sonu Sood's petition seeking relief against an unauthorized construction notice filed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The plea was similarly rejected by a civil court in the city earlier this month.
The high court had granted the actor interim relief by ordering a stay on proceedings till 13 January. On resuming, a single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chauhan dismissed the petition, granting no relief to the actor.
The notice had been issued in October by the BMC, which claimed that the actor had illegally converted his six-storey residential building into a hotel. The actor had earlier offered the same premises for frontline medical workers to stay in isolation.
In his petition, Sood denied undertaking any ''illegal'' construction in the building, Shakti Sagar, stating that any changes had been done as allowed by the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act.
The legal website LiveLaw.in quoted the BMC's senior counsel Anil Sakhare as stating in the affidavit that the actor was a "serial offender" and wished to "enjoy the commercial proceeds of unauthorised work and therefore once again started re-constructing the demolished portion in order to make it operational."
The BMC has also stated that the building has been constructed contrary to the building plan and that neither Sonu Sood nor his wife own documents citing their ownership of the building.