Bollywood actor John Abraham’s legal battle over the ownership of an entire floor in a building in the city has come to the fore with a glass company claiming before the Bombay High Court that it bought the property before him. Abraham purchased the 4,500 sq ft premises covering the entire fourth floor of new Prabhadevi’s Orbit Plaza in 2006 for Rs 11.5 crore. However, one Parekh Glass Company (PGC) has claimed that it bought the property prior to the Bollywood star and dragged him and Orbit Finance, the owner, to court.

An order by a judge of the court in March this year allowed Abraham to give out the premises on leave and licence on the condition that no permanent third party rights are created.

However, an appeal filed by the PGC against this judgement came up for hearing on June 11 before Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice V M Kanade, and was adjourned.

The Glass Company claimed that the fourth floor commercial space was sold to it two months before it was sold to Abraham in August 2006.

PGC claimed it had entered into a sale agreement with Orbit in June 2006 for two units on the fourth floor for Rs three crore.

The company argued that possession of the floor was promised in early 2008 but in January, there was an advertisement for sale of the same premises.

Despite the promise by orbit to allot similar area on the sixth floor bearing stamp duty tab, PGC refused and demanded the fourth floor back.

Abraham, however, has argued that he began his payments from March 2006 much before the other purchaser came on the scene.