Mathai said if the society is found to have practised communal bias its office bearers could face action.

An office bearer of the Nibbana Complex, however, told mediapersons that certain other formalities had to be completed before Emraan could be granted the NoC. He added that a society meeting was scheduled for next Sunday to take a final decision, but the applicant had raised a controversy before that.

In the past, senior actress and former MP Shabana Azmi alleged religious discrimination when she attempted to buy a flat in Mumbai. Actor Arbaaz Khan, brother of Salman Khan, had also experienced similar difficulties when he attempted to buy a flat here.

Emraan said: 'Being a celebrity if I'm facing problems in buying a house here, I wonder what kind of problems others would have been facing. All the time we are talking about secularism but with such incidents what secularism are people talking about?'

He said someone suggested to him that he purchase the house in the name of his wife Parveen, who is a Hindu. 'I can do that, but why should I do that?' he asked.

Bhatt said such discrimination was a serious problem plaguing the country.

'Even 62 years after independence, the virus of communalism is alive in an area like Pali Hill, which is known as India's Beverly Hills where stars like Sunil Dutt lived and Dilip Kumar is still living there. It's a serious problem and is the country ready to accept that communalism is still surviving?'

'There are also certain societies in the area that do not give NoCs to non-Hindus,' he said.