28 December,2010 06:48 AM IST | | Salil Urunkar
The District Civil Court yesterday directed the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to file its say on the issue of removal of Dadoji Konddeo statue from the premises of Lal Mahal in Kasba Peth. The PMC removed the statue of Dadoji Konddeo from Lal Mahal yesterday morning.
Noted historian Pandurang Balkawade had submitted an application in the court of Joint Civil Judge S P Dorle on Saturday, opposing the PMC's general body having passed the resolution to remove Dadoji Konddeo's statue.
Appearing before the court on behalf of Balkawade, Advocate Girish Shinde said that the urgency with which the PMC administration took the action in the wee hours of Monday was uncalled for and the administration could have waited for the court decision before acting hastily.
"The PMC should give its say on the issue as early as possible," Shinde said.
Public Prosecutor S M Jagtap, representing the state government, and Advocate Sureshchandra Bhosale, representing the PMC, had asked the court for a copy of the application and other documents given by the applicant before filing its say on the issue.
Bhosale and Jagtap had demanded that the PMC and government needed sufficient time to study the application and the documents before filing the reply.
They had asked for time till January 4, but the court granted them only three days.
Advocate Shinde also filed an interrogatory before the court yesterday asking the Municipal Commissioner to answer seven questions regarding the removal of the statue.
An interrogatory is a legal term used when a litigant submits in the court of law a set of questions in a written format directed at his opponent.u00a0
"We have asked for the details of the resolution passed by the PMC's general body, its legality, date and time of the Commissioner's order to physically remove the statue and other things," said Shinde.
Advocate Suhas Ranade filed an independent application against the PMC in the court accusing it of wasting the taxpayers' money by removing the Dadoji statue hastily.
Advocate Dnyaneshwar Darwadkar, representing the Shivpremi Janjagran Samiti convener Mukund Kakde, also filed an application in the court on the issue.
