Supreme Court stays order rejecting ‘private forest’ status for 193-acre Thane land

“Operation of the impugned judgment shall remain stayed till the next hearing. We, however, make it clear that the pendency of this special leave petition and the above interim order shall not preclude respondent No. 1 (original owner of the land called D Dahyabhai & Co. Pvt. Ltd) from approaching the petitioner, TMC, to offer full and proper compliance with all the requirements and the Corporation from considering the offer, if any, made by respondent No. 1 in this regard,” the apex court order noted.

In its February 20 judgment, a Bombay High Court division bench of Justices Ravindra V Ghuge and Ashwin D Bhobe ruled on pleas filed by the state government, the Chief Conservator of Forests, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and the private landowner.

The 373-page High Court judgment noted that the civic body already owned and possessed 104 acres. Moreover, it had built a 40-metre Development Plan (DP) road, bus depot, and reserved space for a garden, maternity home, park, school, metro rail, and a small portion of nearly 4 acres for the twin tunnel project, which is at an advanced stage.

The Thane civic body had assured the court that it would preserve the green cover and hand it over to the state if needed, and that the government would maintain the same. The High Court directed it to issue Transferable Development Rights (TDR) or Development Rights Certificates (DRC) to compensate the original owner.

The state government argued that the MRT wrongly expanded an inquiry from 24 acres and 32 gunthas, as sought by the owner, to 193 acres. The High Court rejected this, noting that the land remained with the owner for six decades until the civic body acquired portions through a 2019 deed for public use. The High Court found no grounds to overturn the MRT, prompting the civic body to appeal to the Supreme Court.