In a major jolt to various residents’ forums, who had moved the Bombay High Court challenging the Panvel Municipal Corporation’s retrospective decision to levy property tax since 2016 and not adhering to Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949, the court disposed of some of petitions last week. The HC, however, has given the petitioners the liberty to convert their writ petitions into a public interest litigation (PIL).

Leena Garad, former corporator and one of the petitioners from Kharghar Forum, said, “After hearing the counsels, the court was pleased to observe that as each individual property owner has received property tax receipt in his individual capacity, representative litigation is not permissible as forums and federations do not have any locus/cause of action to file the writ petitions. If individuals are aggrieved, then they will have to file separate writ petitions for themselves. The court even directed Kharghar Forum to convert its writ petition into a PIL instead. The written order is yet to be uploaded.”