The Neville D’Souza football ground at Bandra Reclamation has become the centre of a fresh legal dispute after the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority told the Bombay High Court that the Mumbai Football Association has no ownership or continuing right over the 2.38-hectare plot.
In an affidavit submitted before a bench headed by the Chief Justice, MHADA argued that permissions granted to the association to use the land for beautification, maintenance and sporting activities were temporary and conditional. The authority said the latest such permission expired on 21 September 2024.
MHADA has opposed the association’s petition challenging a proposal to convert the football ground into an exhibition and convention centre. It described the petition as being based on an incorrect understanding, filed in haste and legally unsustainable. The authority also argued that temporary permission to use the plot did not create any ownership, vested interest or uninterrupted right in favour of the association.
The dispute is tied to a larger question over the planning history of the land. The football ground forms part of a larger 4.18 lakh-square-foot plot in Bandra that came into MHADA’s possession in 1964. MHADA’s name was entered in the property record in 1973, according to the affidavit.
The plot was earmarked for a convention complex in the approved development plan of 1983. In 2002, the reservation was changed through a proposal to establish a commercial complex on the site, but MHADA said no further action was taken on that proposal.
The current development plan approved on 22 May 2023 shows the land as a playground. MHADA said the change created the present planning conflict. It added that the state government had not yet taken a final decision on the proposed development-plan change when the football association approached the High Court.
According to MHADA, it approached the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on 3 November 2025 seeking restoration of the earlier reservation. The authority has therefore placed the land’s changing planning designations and its recorded ownership at the centre of its response to the association’s petition.
The court dispute illustrates how long-running temporary land-use permissions can collide with development-plan reservations and proposals for large public or commercial facilities. The immediate legal issue is whether the association can challenge the proposed conversion of the site despite the expiry of its latest permission and the absence, according to MHADA, of any ownership or permanent right over the land.
The High Court’s further proceedings will determine how the competing claims over the Neville D’Souza football ground and the proposed change in its use are considered. The state government’s pending decision on the development-plan issue remains a key part of the land-use dispute.
