Objecting to the Metro

"We are grateful for the directions. Hope all concerned will act like a guardian of the holy fire without fear or favor or narrow Parsi political shenanigans,” senior lawyer Berjis Desai told Parsiana on May 23, 2018. He was referring to the direction of a bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Ajay Gadkari of the Bombay High Court (BHC) who on that date directed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) board to give a hearing to five Parsi high priests, the trustees of Hormasji Bomanji Wadia and Zarathoshti Anjuman Atash Behrams and the litigants who had challenged the Colaba-SEEPZ Metro route. The 33-km proposed line is intended to run under/ past a portion of the atash behrams in South Bombay.
Desai, along with structural engineer Jamshed Sukhadwalla, religious scholar Ervad (Dr) Rooyintan Peer and two trustees of the Shah Varzaavand Trust had moved the BHC praying for intervention to prevent any drilling work for the line, and had sought a realignment of the route. Giving Parsiana his reasoning for the filing of the petition, Desai said: "I do believe that any interference with the elaborately created earth lines and circuits underneath a consecrated fire temple of the highest degree is deeply disturbing to the spiritual beliefs and religious sentiments of the Parsis, a community which has played a stellar role in developing Bombay. Without full disclosure of the relevant technical information, no single Parsi can give a clean chit to the project. The time has now come for Parsis to fight for their legitimate religious rights.” Fearing that the "proposed work… will lead to desecration of the holy consecrated fires,” as well as threaten the structural safety of the heritage buildings, and cause the wells in the two places to run dry, the petitioners had moved the vacation bench of Justices Kathawalla and Gadkari on May 21, 2018, reported The Times of India (TOI) on May 23. Shyam Mehta, counsel for the petitioners told the bench that the construction work on the Metro line, which was stopped after a slab collapsed on April 21 in Jer Mahal, a building close to the atash behrams, would start anytime soon.
For now the bench has stayed the drilling work for the mass transit system and has posted the matter for June when the Court reopens after the summer break. Also, the Justices have directed the state and MMRCL to file their replies to the petition. The bench expressed unhappiness over why all the high priests were not consulted by MMRCL before the project and asked where the high priests and trustees of the two atash behrams were and why were they not in Court. "When informed that one of the atash behrams has not accepted service of the petition while one had, Kathawalla also said that ‘if the trustees of atash behram are not interested in coming to Court for such an important meeting, they should resign,’” the TOI report mentioned.
In November 2017 Dasturs (Dr) Firoze Kotwal and Khurshed Dastoor had met Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis when he had assured the high priests that he had spoken to the concerned MMRCL officials "to ascertain whether there would be any damage to the structures of the two atash behrams” (see "Priests differ on Metro,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, November 21, 2017). The BHC questioned why the CM was holding the meeting. "Have the trustees explained, or (the) priests addressed the community?” the bench asked, after MMRCL counsel said that everything had been explained to the two high priests.
The trustees of the Wadia Atash Behram are Ervad Nadir Modi, Farokh Kavarana and Hosi Dastur. Newly appointed to the trust, Dastur’s son Zerick is the advocate for the petitioners. Dastur (Dr) Kaikhusroo JamaspAsa, Shahrukh Sethna, Firoz and Noshir Katrak, and Burjor Antia serve as trustees of the Anjuman Atash Behram.
The fall of the slab from Jer Mahal Annexe, which residents alleged was due to the ongoing Metro construction, led to the closure of a 65-year-old music school and office of the Swar Sadhana Samiti started by the late tabla maestro Dr Aban Mistry with her late teacher Keki Jijina, reported The Asian Age of April 25.