The orders came after a heated argument, where Justice Srikrishna angrily directed the demolition since the latest affidavit filed by Municipal Commissioner K Nalinakshan was non-committal stating ``action would be taken according to law''. The bench had in its earlier hearing directed that the commissioner would have to state on oath, exactly what legal action and when. Since that was not forthcoming, the bench on its own directed the demolition.

The bench relented only after a hesitant BMC advocate, N V Sanglikar's repeated requests claiming that some time was needed for an inspection of the site. But even then Justice Srikrishna observed that normally they would not have entertained such a request.

In a series of articles, ExpressNewsline had exposed the land grabbing by the Shiv Sena sitting MLA, Gurunath Desai of over 1450 sq metres of land at CTS no 793, Irla passage road, opposite Uma Building, Irla, Vile Parle (E). Shah, who owned the land, had been seeking by all means to get back his land since 1992 fearing that the civic authorities would declare it a slum, overruling the private property claims of Shah.

Arguing on his behalf, advocate Shiraz Rahimtullah contended that the land that had been usurped by Desai today had 34 unauthorised structures, including a gymkhana, a balwadi and a Shiv Sena office all of 700 sq feet, which were unauthorised, pucca structures. The demolition never came through all these years despite complaints and an order passed by the additional municipal commissioner who had declared that the structures were illegal and had to be demolished.

Shah had also complained about the illegalities with the Lokayukta, who had asked for a report from the authorities.