HC stays SRA project on land allotted for MU expansion

The bench was hearing a petition filed by MU, contending that the land had been encroached upon by slum dwellers

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday restrained the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and a developer from proceeding with slum rehabilitation projects on around 3.7 acres of land allotted to the University of Mumbai (MU) for expansion of its Kalina campus.

University of Mumbai (Hindustan Times)

The land, spread across at least 20 plots, could not be used to rehabilitate slum dwellers just because the state government had failed to take effective steps to remove encroachments and hand over the land parcel to the university, the division bench of justices GS Kulkarni and Arif Doctor said while restraining Track Estates Private Limited, the developer, from acting upon a letter of intent issued by the SRA towards approval of the SRA projects.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by MU, contending that the land had been encroached upon by slum dwellers.

According to the petition, the university had signed an agreement with the state government in 1962, following which the government had acquired some land in Kalina in 1974 for future expansion of the university. In 1987, the university was granted a sanad or allotment letter for the land, but its name was not mutated on revenue records.

Meanwhile, some unscrupulous elements had encroached upon the land. Galaxy Heights and Yogiraj Asram, the two societies formed by tenement dwellers, had entered into a development agreement with Track Estates and the SRA had in June 2022 issued a letter of intent appointing Track Estates as the developer for the project, the plea noted.

The sanad via which MU was allotted the land did not allow for it to be used for rehabilitation of slum dwellers, the petition said. The land was transferred illegally between private entities and the Andheri tehsildar had in October 2023 directed that Track Estate’s name may be removed from revenue records. The SRA’s Apex Grievance Redressal Committee too had stayed the SRA project in February 2024 due to lack of clarity regarding title of the land, the plea said.

The next hearing is scheduled on August 11.