AHMEDABAD: A division bench of the Gujarat high court on Wednesday rejected a challenge to a Rs 25,000 fine imposed by a single-judge bench on a set of neighbours who had objected to a Muslim man buying a shop in a Hindu majority area, and reprimanded the objectors saying they were no ‘Harishchandra’, when they claimed violation of the Disturbed Areas Act.
Onali Khambhatwala had bought a shop near Champaner Darwaza in Vadodara from a Hindu owner in 2016. The government had invoked the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provisions of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991 (Disturbed Areas Act) in the area, which restricts property transactions and mandates the district collector’s permission for transactions.
The sale deed was registered after an HC order in 2020. Two years later, Hindus living in the neighbourhood asked the HC to review its order, on the grounds that their signatures on a consent form had been obtained in 2016 by misrepresentation, and they had realized later that the law also prohibits the sale of property to members of a different community because it could disturb the social equilibrium of the area.
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