In his affidavit, the honorary secretary of the board of trustees of the Shree Shanmukhananda Hall, N Parmeswaran claimed that the housing society should be stopped from claiming any relief because the hall has been in existence since 1963 and if there were any infringement of rights it should have moved the court then.

A division bench of Justice N J Pandya and Justice S S Parkar adjourned for two weeksthe hearing on the petition.

The housing society has claimed that it is unable to park its vehicles on the Harbanslal Marg firstly because the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced a pay-and-park scheme on the road. Secondly, the entire parking space under the scheme is reserved for the patrons of the hall when any function is held. The petition claiming a fundamental right to parking has prayed for a direction from the High Court to the BMC and the Traffic police to carve out a section on the road as exclusive parking space for the residents of the society.

The BMC and the Traffic Police have sought time to file their versions.The affidavit filed by Parmeswaran says that the pay-and-park scheme has been introduced by the BMC with a view to regulate traffic in the interest of the general public. It is only in the cases of VVIP visits to the hall that the traffic department takes control of the scheme and monitors parking permissions.

On the petitioners' allegations that rules ofparking spaces were not adhered to in the re-construction of the hall, which was gutted in a fire in 1993, the affidavit states that the construction, which followed all the BMC rules started in 1993 itself and the tower block was already completed by March 1996. The affidavit claims as false and incorrect the petitioners' claims that the reconstruction of the building started in the latter half of 1996.

It has refuted the petitioners' claim that the noise level from its generator and the air conditioner is around 120 decibels and has attached BMC engineer's readings of noise pollution which show that the noise levels, with and without the roar of the railway trains running in the area, never shot up over 70 decibels.

Submitting that it would be impossible to close the hall, the affidavit states that around Rs 12.5 crore was spent on the reconstruction and the donations have come in from the Central government, the governments of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and others.

Veena Vihar, a cooperative housingsociety with 108 flats, was formed in 1953 when parking space was not a prerequisite with the civic corporation. Today, with over 60 private vehicles with the flat owners, the society is facing an acute shortage of parking space.