The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday moved the Bombay high court seeking its permission to allow parking of vehicles alongside the Shivaji Park ground in central Mumbai during the forthcoming Ganesh festival in September.
However, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah asked the civic body to approach the bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, which had last year passed the order on a similar plea.
The BMC sought permission for the second, fifth, seventh and tenth day of the festival which starts from September 9.
Permission is mandatory as the high court had earlier declared that Shivaji Park fell within a “silence zone” and had restrained BMC from granting permission to any festival celebrations in the area while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO ‘Wecom Trust’.
The NGO on Monday told the court that last year the bench, headed by Justice Chandrachud, had advised the BMC, police and NGOs to hold a joint meeting over the issue and find alternative sites for parking during festivals.
Although such meetings were held recently, the minutes of the meetings had not been supplied to them and no alternative sites had been identified either, the trust’s lawyer said.
BMC lawyer S.U. Kamdar argued that the vehicular traffic had during the festivals increased manifold and it was difficult to regulate the traffic flow during festivals.