HC orders probe into allotments under Sion Koliwada SRA scheme

Out of 1,340 eligible slum-dwellers, 804 were allotted tenements in Nirmal Nagar CHS via lottery, which included 410 who were either dead or became ineligible

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has ordered an inquiry into the allotment of tenements in a slum redevelopment scheme in Sion Koliwada, taking the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to task over alleged mass illegal allotments to “missing” persons.

Nirmal Nagar Cooperative Housing Society in Sion Koliwada

Remarking that the situation was “highly unconscionable and shocking”, the court directed the authorities to conduct an inquiry into the irregularities, fix the role of the developer, and state what action had been taken on the alleged illegal allotments.

A bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni and Justice Aarti Sathe remarked, “We have a grave doubt as to whether the SRA continues to have any statutory control whatsoever, in the manner known to law, qua the slum schemes it governs.”

The court made these scathing remarks while hearing a petition relating to a project that launched more than a decade ago, on May 5, 2014, when the Nirmal Nagar Cooperative Housing Society in Sion Koliwada appointed a developer to undertake a slum rehabilitation project.

The scheme finally started taking shape in December 2024, when the names of 1,340 eligible slum-dwellers were announced. Of these, 804 members were allotted tenements via a computerised lottery.

The name of the petitioner, Manikam Palanivel Devendra, a coconut vendor from Sion Koliwada, was not included in the list of eligible slum-dwellers, nor was the name of his friend, Murugan Devendra, who runs a cyber cafe in the same locality. Despite their “undisputed eligibility”, they said that they were wrongfully denied allotment in the lottery, which had allegedly awarded tenements to “missing” persons.

Devendra said that of those 804 eligible individuals named in the list, 410 slum-dwellers were either deceased or had already sold their tenements and left the project site, which made them ineligible under the scheme. And, yet, he pointed out, their names still appeared in the list of people eligible for rehabilitation.

This prompted Devendra to move the Bombay High Court on July 25, 2025, through his advocate Shakil Ahmed, stating that if the lottery had been held after excluding the names of the “missing” slum-dwellers, his name would have been selected under the scheme.

“This fundamentally flawed process has ignored the rights of genuine slum-dwellers, denied housing to present and eligible persons like me, and created a mechanism for fraud. This necessitates the urgent intervention of the high court to prevent the perpetuation of these illegalities and protect the statutory rights of the ones who were denied justice by the authorities,” Devendra said in his petition.

The 64-year-old coconut vendor also highlighted that in December 2014, the tehsildar, SRA, had written to the developer, Sejal Shakti Realtors LLP, pointing to a “critical discrepancy” between the list of slum-dwellers drawn up during the initial survey in 2004, and the list of slum-dwellers who had signed the agreement giving consent for the scheme.

The tehsildar had pointed out that many eligible slum-dwellers, whose names appeared under the scheme, were missing and that they had never personally signed the agreement with the developer.

Murugan also expressed his disappointment towards the “loose” attitude of the authorities. He said, “We requested the authorities to correct the allotment list. But they didn’t listen to us and made the allotment to people who are not even eligible any more. And people like us, who are actually eligible, didn’t get our houses.”

Acting on Devendra’s petition, the court on September 17 directed the chief executive officer of the SRA to visit the site and submit a report on the number of illegal occupants in possession of the slum tenements, and also allowed the CEO to evict the unauthorised occupants.

“This is the only manner in which the illegality in commercialisation and dealing of the slum tenements by the so-called slum-dwellers, who abuse the slum schemes in connivance with the SRA officials in dealing with the tenements, can be addressed. It is high time that SRA put its house in order on such day-in and day-out illegalities,” the bench observed.

Executive Engineer with the SRA, DB Patil, denied the allegations flagged in the petition. He said the SRA had inspected the site and found not a single illegal occupant. “We have taken the keys of all the houses and will be distributing the same after verifying the names in the list,” he told HT, while emphasising that the question of illegality does not arise.

He added that the SRA has granted occupation to 804 people and that they will not allow any illegal activity in the project. If they find people other than original slum-dwellers in the list, they will give possession of the tenements in question to eligible slum-dwellers.