Bombay HC initiates suo motu proceedings to review working of 1971 slum redevelopment law

The bench led by Justice Kulkarni will begin the suo motu proceedings on August 16.

“The representatives of the Government, the Statutory Authorities under the Act 1971 and the necessary stakeholders including intended beneficiaries shall take note of the same,” the notice issued by the HC registry stated.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Aravind Kumar of the Supreme Court on July 30 had passed a judgment dismissing an appeal of “Yash Developers” against the Bombay HC verdict.

In 2022, a single-judge bench of Justice Kulkarni had upheld cancellation of a slum-redevelopment project granted in favour of the real estate firm in 2003 for developing a slum in Borivali.

The project was prolonged for over two decades and the agreement was terminated by the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee on August 4, 2021.

It had asked the concerned bench of HC to hear government authorities and stakeholders and may consider directing the government to constitute a committee for performance audit of the Act.

The SC had referred to data extracted from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) data which revealed that a total of 1612 cases, involving disputes arising under the 1971 Act, are pending before the high court. Of these, 135 cases are more than 10 years old.

“The exasperation of the High Court about working of the Act is understandable…The Act is a beneficial legislation, intended to materialize the constitutional assurance of dignity of the individual by providing basic housing, so integral to human life. However, the propensity and the proclivity of the statute to generate litigation are worrisome. There seems to be a problem with the statutory framework for realizing the purpose and object of the statute,” the apex court had noted.