Lata Mangeshkar moves HC against civic body on demolition of shed

Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar has urged the Bombay high court to set aside a notice of Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) asking her to stop demolition of dilapidated shed of her studio in Kolhapur and restrain from changing the original structure as it had Heritage status.

Justice DD Sinha and justice Mridula Bhatkar yesterday directed KMC to file a reply within four weeks.

The 80-year-old singer contended that she had started demolition of the dilapidated shed of her Jay Prabha studio after she received a notice from KMC on April 16 saying the structure was 60 years old and could fall anytime thereby posing danger to the people on the adjacent road and also to students of nearby school.

The April 16 notice also warned Mangeshkar that she would be held responsible if any accident occurred because of the shed falling down, the petition said.

However, when the demolition work commenced the singer received two more notices dated July 9 and July 10 asking her
to stop the demolition work. The notices asked Mangeshkar to
retain the original iron frame of the shed. She was also asked
not to make any changes to the original structure as it fell
under Heritage Grade III category, the court was informed.

"All the iron sheets and the roof were removed and when the work of removing the iron frame was in process, KMC issued a fresh notice. My bona fide intention was only to avoid any incident as the condition of the shed and that of the iron frame is very bad," Mangeshkar said in the petition.