Adarsh scam: Society members challenge MOEF demolition order

Mumbai, Feb 15 (ANI): Almost a month after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) passed an order to demolish the Adarsh Housing Society, its members have approached the Bombay High Court challenging the order.

The Environment Ministry had on January 16 directed the society to demolish within three months the unauthorised building in South Mumbai for violating coastal regulations.

About 103 members of the society filed a petition in the High Court yesterday challenging the Ministry's order on the grounds that it is "wrong in law".

According to the petition, filed through the solicitor firm of Amit Naik, all necessary permission was taken from all the departments of the government.

"The Society has complied with all the regulations and has taken necessary permission from the government," the petition states.

The Adarsh scam claimed its first victim last year in the form of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who was forced to resign after reports surfaced that his kin owned flats in the society.

After Chavan, top bureaucrats too faced the axe, most notably among them being Maharashtra's Chief Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari and Human Rights Commissioner Subhash K Lalla.

The 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society, originally meant for Kargil war heroes, landed in controversy after media reports said that several politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnel owned flats there. (ANI)