A division bench of Justice B P Saraf and Justice Ranjana Desai today gave the parties warring over parking space outside the Shanmukhananda hall six weeks to sit together and sort things out.

Accordingly members of the Veena Vihar Housing Society, trustees of the Shanmukhananda hall and BMC Traffic department officials will work together to resolve the parking problem faced whenever the hall has its functions.

The directions came in a petition filed by the society situated adjacent to the hall which when constructed in the 1960s, did not have any DC rules to force it to have parking spaces for their vehicles. As the years went by, members started parking their vehicles on the road outside. However, when the hall was reconstructed after the fire in 1998, the Harbanslal Marg outside was prioritised for hall patrons, and society members had to pay Rs 250 per month to the hall authorities. The petitioners moved court.

Advocate Vasant Bhandare arguedon their behalf that the DC rules for the hall's reconstruction were violated since there was no scope for parking space under the new scheme. He also argued that it was wrong on BMC's part to give away a public road to the hall authorities.

However, the respondents pointed out that the road was not used to cater exclusively for patrons; it could be used by anyone after 9 pm without payments. It is only when functions are on and VVIP visits take place that the traffic department takes control of the road.

RBI to investigate bank scam

A division bench of the Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia today orally directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to investigate allegations of corruption and embezzlement in the Mahanagar Cooperative Bank Ltd, earlier known as the Ahmednagar Sahakari Bank Ltd. The high court also gave the RBI ten days to peruse records.

The directions came in a public interest writ petition filed by one Bhausaheb Anandrao Zaware and two others who alleged thatcorruption and embezzlement to the tune of Rs 6.30 crore had been committed by the then chairperson of the bank, Gulabrao Shelke. At present, his wife, Suman Gulabrao Shelke is chairperson.

The petitioners said the frauds committed by Shelke and 17 other bank directors had been published in newspapers. Complaints were also filed before the DCP (Economic wing) and various ministries, including the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. Since no action had been taken, the petitioners moved court. The chairperson through three other companies floated by him - the Hiramani Super Market, Lalbaug, Janata Sahakari Stores and Consumer Stores - was allegedly embezzling money from the bank and leasing out premises owned by it to these companies at meagre rents.