A group of concerned Parsis including structural engineer Jamshed Sukhadwalla, senior solicitor Berjis Desai, scholar priest Rooyintan Peer and two trustees of Shah Varzaavand Trust, had moved the Bombay High Court to challenge work on the underground Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-III corridor, which passes from under the compound of two Atash Behrams – Wadiaji Atash Behram (consecrated in 1830) and Anjuman Atash Behram (consecrated in 1897), at the junction of Princess Street and Kalbadevi in South Mumbai.

The Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro-III corridor has been proposed to run under Jagannath Shankar Sheth Road, which is ‘home to two out of eight Atash Behrams in India and holds tremendous spiritual significance for Zoroastrians’ stated the petition. Praying for the re-alignment of the Metro line before the vacation bench, Shyam Mehta stated, “MMRC said they won’t go under sanctum sanctorum. We said they can’t go under the Atash Behram at all. There are three fires there.”

Counsel Shyam Mehta along with advocate Zerick Dastur representing petitioners moved the vacation bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Ajay Gadkari to intervene and prevent any drilling work, and has sought a stay on the ‘up’ tunnel from running under the Atash Behrams. The said work has been put on hold after a slab collapsed in Jer Mahal building.

On Monday, 21st May, 2018, the petitioners voiced their fear that ‘the proposed work, in its current form, will lead to desecration of the holy consecrated fires’, as well as threaten the structural safety of heritage buildings and may cause the holy wells in the Atash Behrams to run dry. In keeping with the same, in a significant order, the Bombay High Court, on Wednesday, 23rd May, directed that the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) Board give a hearing to five high priests, trustees of two Atash Behrams and several Parsi litigants who challenged the Mumbai Metro-III project route. The court directed State, MMRDA and MMRC to file their replies to the petition and expressed unhappiness at why all the high priests were not consulted by MMRC before the project commenced. The bench questioned the absence of the high priests and Trustees of the two Atash Behrams in court, to which Justice Kathawalla stated, “if the trustees of Atash Behram are not interested in coming to court for such an important matter, they should resign.”

After the HC expressed its desire to stay drilling work and post the matter after the vacation to June, MMRC counsel, Girish Godbole requested that his statement be recorded that the drilling work would not touch the Atash Behrams till the next hearing on 14th June.

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Courtesy: Mainline Media