Summary:
MUMBAI: Almost five decades after the state government staked claim to 3,000 acres of land in Vikhroli from the Godrej group , the case has at last come up for final hearing before the Bombay high court The dispute has remained unresolved since 1973 when the state filed its suit against Godrej & Boyce, Mumbai’s biggest private landlord. A large part of the 12 sq km land claimed is mangroves.On Monday, the state began cross-examining the first witness, Maneck Engineer , a civil engineer who had filed the evidence on behalf of Godrej. The dispute involves documents and land records compiled in seven volumes and dating back almost 200 years.There are also a number of correspondences between Godrej and various authorities, including an original letter of July 21, 1952, from the Bombay collector to Godrej. It continued on Tuesday before Justice Gautam Patel ..