Bombay High Court to hear BMC's reply to Kangana Ranaut's plea challenging demolition of her office today

The BMC on Wednesday undertook the demolition of the "illegal alterations" at Kangana Ranaut's office in Mumbai.

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court will on Thursday hear Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) reply to Kangana Ranaut's plea challenging the demolition of her office. The hearing is scheduled for 3 pm today. 

On Wednesday, the high court had stayed the demolition drive of Kangana's office, asking the BMC to file a reply on the actress' petition, barely a couple of hours after the its officials started bulldozing the premises. The Bombay HC sought to know from the BMC how it entered the premises and directed it to file an affidavit in response to the plea while posting the matter for hearing on Thursday.

The BMC on Wednesday undertook the demolition of the "illegal alterations" at Kangana's office in Pali Hill.

Kangana Ranaut approached the high court through her advocate Rizwan Siddiqui, challenging the stop-work notice issued on Tuesday and seeking a stay on the demolition process. The plea argued that the petitioner (Kangana) was not given sufficient time to respond to the notice and the demolition process was initiated in a hurried manner with ulterior motives.

The BMC on Tuesday filed a caveat in a local court, saying it should be heard first if Kangana Ranaut challenges a stop-work notice issued to her.

Before the demolition work on Wednesday, the BMC posted a second notice outside her bungalow, informing her of the action being taken by the civic body, an official said.

The bitter face-off between Kangana and the Maharashtra government turned ugly on Wednesday after the demolition process. The actress arrived in Mumbai in the afternoon and all through her journey from Manali, she kept tweeting about the BMC officials bringing down her property. 

Kangana Ranaut's recent remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) drew the ire of the ruling Shiv Sena, which also controls the BMC.

(With PTI inputs)