PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Friday disposed of a petition filed by one Roysal de Souza, a gaunkar of the Anjuna comunidade alleging that dues owed to the comunidade were yet to be paid, after the organisers informed the Court that they deposited demand drafts to the tune of Rs 3.28 crore with the Administrator of Comunidades the total amount as sought.
De Souza had approached the Court with a grievance that the organisers had failed to pay the comunidade the amount for lease of the land and further sought that the organisers pay up the amount failing which the festival should be cancelled.
“The record does bear out that when the petitioner filed this petition, the 6th respondent (Sunburn) had not paid any amount. However… respondent No. 6 submitted that there was no clear demand from the Comunidade and in any case, the 6th respondent had tendered cheques on 27/12/2023. He pointed out that the Authorities required the 6th respondent to pay by demand draft instead of cheques and therefore, such demand drafts were tendered to the Administrator of Comunidade on Friday at 10.30 am,” the High Court said in its order.
“Now that the amounts demanded by the comunidade have been deposited with the Administrator in terms of the orders of the Supreme Court, this petition can be disposed of and is accordingly disposed of without any order for costs,” the High Court vacation bench of Justice M S Sonak ruled.
According to Adv Nikhil Pai, who represented Sunburn the delay was on account of the organisers being unsure of the exact lease charges since no formal approval order was given to them and the time it took to give a DD as sought by the Administrator, in place of which signed cheques were given as security.
Sunburn has paid Rs 2,43,14,607 towards the occupation charges payable to the Comunidade; Rs 48,62,921 to the Administrator as ‘Derrama’ and further amount of Rs 24,31,460 to the Director of Civil Administrator and Rs 12,15,732 towards 15% security deposit.
De Souza had filed a petition seeking “a writ of mandamus, order or direction thereby directing the respondent authorities to evict respondent No. 6 (organisers of Sunburn) from comunidade land...” or alternatively “for an order directing respondent No. 6 to immediately make payment of ground rent of an amount of Rs 2,43,14,607 (2.43 cr) to respondent No. 4,” (the Comunidade of Anjuna).
