Allowing construction of a football stadium with an attached club house will not infringe upon the right to life, the Bombay high court on Friday observed while dismissing a public interest litigation challenging renovation of Cooperage football ground in South Mumbai.
A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice DG Karnik decided on petition filed in 2006 by former municipal commissioner Jamshed Kanga and Oval Cooperage Residents Association challenging then chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s July 9, 2003 order permitting Western India Football Association to construct on 12,052 sqm of the total 28,412 sqm.
Petitioner’s advocates Suresh Menon and Gautam Patel argued that the right to public open spaces and access to recreational grounds is an integral to Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The judges disagreed.
“We are not convinced that by allowing construction of football stadium with a club attached to it would anyway infringe the right to life and right of having an opportunity of development of all or any aspects of human life.
“Promoting sports, especially, among children and providing them with a facility of a good, if not world class, stadium for developing the skills of play of football is in consonance with the Directive Principles laid down in Clause (f) of Article 39 of the Constitution of India,” they added.
The judges said July 1993 does not violate the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, the Development Control and Coastal Regulation Zone regulations. They recorded WIFA’s counsel Darius Khambata’s statement that except the Club House, the ground will be open for use except on match days and will limit construction to 0.5 FSI.
