Mumbai: Bombay High Court on Monday restrained the civic body from taking any action against actor Sonu Sood till January 13 when it will hear his plea against an order to demolish alleged unauthorised construction to a residential building in Juhu. The actor had filed an appeal against a city civil court order of last December which dismissed his challenge to a BMC notice.

The BMC had last October issued the actor a demolition notice for allegedly making illegal structural changes to the sixstorey Shakti Sagar building in Juhu. His appeal says the city civil judge ought to have considered that the BMC had “issued the notice with malafide intention” and thus is a “nullity and malafide”. Sood, in his appeal, said he has not carried out any “illegal or unauthorised” construction in the building.

On Monday, his counsel Amogh Singh with advocate DP Singh made submissions before Justice Prithviraj Chavan for interim relief, saying Sood had not made any changes in the building that warrant permission from the BMC. He took the bench through the lower court order to argue that principles of natural justice were flouted by the BMC.

Special civic counsel Anil Sakhare submitted the appeal papers were just served and requested time, but also said the BMC had already demolished the structure twice and had filed a police case against Sood under the MRTP Act.

The court asked Singh to inform it about the case. Both sides will be heard on Wednesday. Singh said till then the interim protection as granted by the lower court against any coercive steps may be continued.