The Bombay High Court has questioned the legality of redeveloping 33 acres of prime government land at Cuffe Parade under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme, warning that such projects risk diverting valuable public land under the guise of slum rehabilitation. Calling it a “modus operandi” to siphon off public property, the court said that handing over such prime land for private development without Cabinet approval could amount to a “fraud on the Constitution.”

The HC expressed concern over the state’s ‘largesse’, stating that prime land cannot be removed from the public pool and ‘thrown open for private development’ at a time when the city is already deprived of basic utilities such as gardens, open spaces, and other public amenities.

The division bench of Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe, hearing two petitions on October 1, expressed concern that such a vast and valuable tract of public land in one of the city’s most expensive sea-facing localities could be permanently lost to slum redevelopment and large-scale private construction.

The court raised questions over whether the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) had obtained any Cabinet approval to transfer such large government land for private redevelopment.

“Under the garb of any schemes under the Slum Act, such large and valuable public largesse cannot be taken away and deprived of public utility and public interest,” the bench said.

“Such prime land cannot be permanently taken away from the public pool of lands as also been thrown open for private development, would be the moot question, certainly arising for consideration. Prima facie, any other view would amount to a fraud on the Constitution,” the bench said in the order.

The judges drew attention to what they described as a ‘modus operandi’ in which public lands are encroached, declared slums, and then redeveloped. “This is a usual modus operandi to siphon off valuable public lands. We need not delve into the cost of each unit in an area like Colaba/Cuffe Parade. The value of the land and any development thereon just needs to be imagined,” the Bombay HC said in the order.