Birch fire: HC dismisses plea by disputed property owners

Panaji: The Bombay high court has dismissed a writ petition filed by Pradeep Amonkar and Vinal Divker, disputing property owners of the land where the Birch by Romeo Lane fire took place, holding that the plea was not bona fide and was essentially an attempt to use the tragedy to settle a private dispute and deflect potential liability.Amonkar and Divker had moved the high court after the Dec 6, 2025 fire, seeking directions to enforce a 2024 Arpora panchayat demolition order against alleged illegal structures of Birch by Romeo Lane, claimed to have been put up by Surinder Kumar Khosla. Their petition alleged that illegal operations continued on premises that were unauthorised, unsafe, and in violation of CRZ and other regulatory norms.The bench, which had initially tagged their plea with a pending PIL and the court’s suo motu proceedings on the fire incident, noted that the petition was filed only after the tragedy and questioned the motive.

The court observed that the petitioners were trying to “interlink” their private property dispute with Khosla with a larger public issue, thereby attempting “to resolve private civil disputes … and to avoid the civil and/or criminal liabilities that may be imposed after the ongoing investigations.

”The court held that all wider concerns raised in their petition—regarding illegality, safety, and regulatory violations—were already being addressed through its orders and directions in the PIL on the fire incident.

It accepted the advocate general’s contention that granting any relief in the present petition could prejudice pending civil suits, counterclaims and ongoing criminal investigations.“Considering the conduct and lack of bona fides of the Petitioners,” the court said, “any relief in the present petition … shall either affect the pending civil suits, counterclaims, and/or the ongoing investigations in the matter… Even after the PIL addressed the larger issues canvassed by the Petitioners, they chose to press relief in the present petition.

That itself establishes the private interest of the Petitioners and intention, which is not bona fide.

”The advocate general also informed the court that, during the criminal probe into the fire, investigators had found that constructions on survey numbers 158/0 and 159/0 in Arpora had been carried out by Amonkar and Divker themselves in 2004.