Bombay High Court

Sandeep Ashar

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to get rid of the norm of obtaining prior consent from slum dwellers for projects involving integrated development of slums into townships.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sankelacha recently asked the government to “make special provisions allowing the government to appoint a developer without such consent” for such redevelopment projects. Existing slum redevelopment norms require the developer to obtain consent from 70 per cent slum dwellers before construction permission is granted to such projects.

The court, however, observed that the norm was only helping slumlords and was in no way beneficial to individual slum dwellers. “In the last 17 years, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has allotted 1,524 slum redevelopment projects, but only 197 of these (less than 13 per cent) have been completed so far. It has been brought out that ascertaining eligibility and obtaining consent of slum dwellers is a Herculean task. If a developer is required to ascertain the eligibility of slum dwellers for rehabilitation and obtain their consent for development, considerable time, energy and money is consumed in the process,” the court observed, while ruling on a petition concerning one such redevelopment project in Mumbai.

Advocate General Darius Khambatta, who represented the government, informed the court that a state-appointed panel, which is reviewing development control regulations.

Revising Rights

The Maharashtra housing department has sought modifications in development control regulations to implement a policy decision that recognises a slum dweller’s right to transfer a slum structure. CM Prithviraj Chavan had announced the initiative in the run-up to the civic polls, but a final notification is yet to be issued.

While existing regulations allow only the original inhabitant of a pre-1995 (Jan 1) slum structure to be rehabilitated, the proposed modification will make new occupants eligible for rehabilitation upon payment of a transfer fee.