Communal concerns

In November 2006, while he was looking for a flat in Bombay’s Lokhandwala Complex at Andheri, actor Aamir Ali, a popular face on television, said he was impressed with an apartment shown to him by a broker. However, he felt deeply aggrieved when informed him that the society would not permit him to buy it because he is a Muslim, as per a report in DNA (Daily News and Analysis), posted on the website wwww.daijiworld.com, a portal linking the west coast of India and the world. Alleging discrimination, Ali, in a public interest litigation filed before the Bombay High Court, urged the court to direct the government and registrar of cooperative societies to desist from rejecting membership to individuals because they belong to a particular community.

Arguing on behalf of Ali, senior counsel Arif Bookwalla told the court about a judgment of the Supreme Court in a case concerning Zoroastrians, where land had been allotted to the community and they had the power to deny membership to non-Zoroastrians, but in Ali’s case it was a cosmopolitan society. "The cooperative spirit is defeated by refusing membership to Muslims,” Bookwalla said. A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud have now asked the state government to file a reply in four weeks, as per the DNA report.