The Bombay High Court has criticised the Maharashtra government, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority and other public bodies for remaining inactive while encroachments and legal disputes affected a long-delayed slum rehabilitation project on 66,000 square metres of government land in Chembur, Mumbai.
A division bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni and Justice Neela Gokhale was hearing petitions connected with the redevelopment of the site. The court said public authorities could not behave like inactive landowners when public property was under encroachment or locked in prolonged litigation.
The bench directed the state government and other authorities to accept responsibility for protecting encroached public land and advancing its redevelopment in the public interest. It also criticised a situation in which public agencies allegedly remained bystanders after encroachments occurred and allowed commercial dealings involving government land.
According to the court’s observations, the redevelopment effort at the Chembur site began in August 2006. Nearly 20 years later, however, not a single brick has been laid at the project site. The delay has been linked to continuing legal disputes involving several slum-dweller societies and competing private developers.
The court said public land management could not be left to administrative indifference. It held that government and planning authorities needed to take an active role in exercising ownership responsibility and ensure that redevelopment was pursued for public benefit rather than being determined by the preferences or commercial negotiations of private developers.
The observations are significant for the implementation of slum rehabilitation projects in Mumbai, where the redevelopment of occupied public land involves multiple authorities, resident societies and private developers. In the Chembur case, the prolonged dispute has prevented the project from progressing despite the stated objective of rehabilitating residents.
The bench expressed concern that the legal purpose of slum rehabilitation was being completely defeated by the continuing impasse. The court’s criticism also extended to the broader management of public land in Mumbai and surrounding areas, where large parcels intended for important public purposes were, according to the order, being left vulnerable to encroachment.
The ruling places responsibility on the state government, the SRA and other relevant authorities to move beyond a passive administrative role. It also underlines that the existence of litigation cannot by itself result in public land remaining unmanaged or redevelopment remaining indefinitely stalled.
The court’s order emerged from petitions relating to the Chembur project. The next steps will depend on how the state government, the SRA and the other public authorities act on the directions and observations concerning protection of the land and the advancement of rehabilitation.
