MUMBAI: Bollywood actor John Abraham's legal battle over the ownership of an entire floor in a building at New Prabhadevi's Orbit plaza has come to the fore with a glass company claiming before the Bombay High Court that it bought the property before John.
John has purchased the 4,500 sq ft premises covering the entire fourth floor of the said building in 2006 for Rs 11.5 crore.
However, one Parekh Glass Company (PGC) has claimed that it bought the property prior John and dragged both, him and Orbit Finance, the owner, to court.
But an order by a single judge of this court in March this year allowed John to give out the premises on leave and license on the condition that no permanent third party rights are created.
However, an appeal filed by the PGC against this judgement of lower court, came up for hearing on June 11 before Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice V M Kanade, was adjourned. It will come up for further hearing in due course.
The glass company said that the fourth floor commercial space was sold to it two months before it was sold to John in August 2006.
PGC said it had entered into a sale agreement with Orbit in June 2006 for two units on the fourth floor for Rs 3 crore.
The company argued that possession of the floor was promised in early 2008 but in January, there was an advertisement for sale of the same premises.
Despite the promise from Orbit to allot similar area on the sixth floor bearing stamp duty tab, PGC refused and demanded the fourth floor back.
John, however, has argued that he began his payments from March 2006 much before the other purchaser came on the scene.
