AHMEDABAD: A businessman, C P Jain, has been fighting for parking space for his car. In 2010, when Jain and his family moved into a residential society in Shahibaug, he found all the parking space occupied by cars, leaving no space for his. Some families that owned two or three cars, were allotted additional space marked with their car registration numbers.These additional parking slots, according to Jain, were allotted after members paid Rs 35,000 in cash to the society and Rs 1,000 as maintenance of the parking space to the society by cheque. Jain did not pay and stood his ground, holding that such sales were illegal.Jain’s housing society had 292 flats and space for 368 cars. However, just 241 members of the society accounted for all 368 car parking slots, leaving Jain and a few others to jostle for space in the common area. Most of the times, he had to park his vehicle outside.Jain armed himself with the Supreme Court order in the case of Nahalchand Lallochand Vs Panchali Co-operative Housing and the Ahmedabad police commissioner’s notification of May 21, 2011, holding claiming that sale or allotment of basement parking or parking space in the common area was prohibited and was an offence.There was not been a single authority Jain did not approach for redress. He approached the district collector, district registrar for co-operatives, police commissioner, Shahibaug police inspector, assistant municipal commissioner of the central zone, the city survey office and the chief minister’s SWAGAT redress programme. All these efforts came to naught.On September 14, 2014, assistant municipal commissioner R M Desai asked the office of DCP Zone 4 to look into the matter. The case promptly went to Shahibaug police, which filed two reports claiming that there was “no proof of sale of parking space and that space was allotted by the society”. The district registrar of co-operatives ruled that Jain’s society was meant for facilitation and was not authorised to sell property. They asked Jain to approach Shahibaug police to investigate the matter again in January 2017. Five months later, AMC’s deputy estate officer asked Jain to approach Shahibaug police“I have an affidavit from a society member, Dharmendra Shah, claiming that the chairman had demanded Rs 35,000 in cash from him and Rs 1,000 by cheque, to be allotted parking space,” says Jain.

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