AHMEDABAD: After the Gujarat High Court today dismissed an appeal filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's wife against the civic body's decision to demolish a part of his house here, the Supreme Court stayed the demolition till July 30.
Alleging illegal construction at Bhatt's bungalow adjoining his plot, his neighbour and petitioner Pravinchandra Patel had in 2012 moved the high court, seeking a direction to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to demolish "unauthorised construction".
After Justice A J Desai directed the civic body to demolish the construction, Bhatt's wife Shweta moved a division bench.
The bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi today dismissed her appeal, and allowed the civic authorities to take action. The court also rejected Bhatt's plea to grant time to approach the supreme court.
"Soon after the court's order, Bhatt's wife moved the Supreme Court where the matter was mentioned before a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi and Navin Sinha, which passed an order saying there will be no demolition till Monday, July 30," said advocate Jeet Bhatt, her lawyer.
The apex court said the applicant may file a special leave petition against the HC order within this period, the lawyer added.
Sanjiv Bhatt, who had taken on former Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, was sacked by the Union Home Ministry in August 2015 for "unauthorised absence" from service.
Bhatt crossed swords with the Modi government earlier when he filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court claiming that he had attended a meeting at Modi's residence in Gandhinagar on February 27, 2002, during which the chief minister instructed top police officers to allow the Hindus to "vent out their anger" after the Godhra train tragedy.
However, this claim was rejected by the apex-court appointed Special Investigation Team.