Bombay HC says Mumbai not for developers and SRA intended to serve purpose of public welfare

This city is not for developers, and the Slum Rehabilitation Act (SRA) is intended to serve the purpose of public welfare and not the developers, the Bombay High Court said, directing two developers to pay transit arrears of Rs 11 crore to a suburban SRA project.

Afcons Developers Ltd and Ameya Housing Private Ltd were appointed as co-developers of the slum rehabilitation project at Jogeshwari in suburban Mumbai. More than 300 people eligible to get flats in the project have not been getting any transit rent since 2019. Of the 300, 17 were put up in transit accommodations and were hence not receiving transit rent, but these houses were also in a dilapidated condition.

The remaining 230 persons have not received any transit rent since 2019 and have been left to fend for themselves. The two co-developers are locked in a never-ending arbitration and there is no work being done at the site, the court said.

This city is not for developers. The Slum Rehabilitation Act is not for developers. The Act is intended to serve a public welfare purpose. Developers are a means to that end,” it observed.

Those obligations include not only rebuilding or building of the rehabilitation structures and tenements both commercial and residential, but also the payment of transit rent or providing habitable transit accommodation, it said.

A party in default cannot be allowed to take advantage of its own wrong and failure. That would be profiteering and that too at public expense because many of these slum projects are on public lands such as this one and the developer is not being made to pay the cost of land, the bench said.

The court also warned of terminating the developers contract and appointing a new one noting that the developer can always be changed, but the beneficiaries of a SRA project cannot.