The Supreme Court affirmed the landowner’s preferential right to redevelop a Slum Rehabilitation Area under the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act, 1971. It held that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority must issue a specific notice inviting the owner to submit a redevelopment scheme before any acquisition under Section 14 can be initiated. The 2018 Amendment to the Act did not dilute this mandatory requirement, and acquisition proceedings commenced without such notice were declared illegal.
Facts Of The Case:
The case concerns a plot of land in Bandra, Mumbai, owned by the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount (Church Trust). A portion of this land had been encroached by hutments since the 1930s and was declared a slum area in 1978. The slum dwellers formed the Shri Kadeshwari Cooperative Housing Society (Proposed) and subsequently appointed M/s Saldanha Real Estates as their developer. The Church Trust, however, expressed its own intention to redevelop the slum as part of a larger composite project encompassing its adjoining lands. Ignoring the Trust’s proposals, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), acting on the society’s application, declared the area a Slum Rehabilitation Area in December 2020. The SRA then initiated land acquisition proceedings against the Church Trust under Section 14 of the Act to facilitate the scheme proposed by Saldanha. This was done without issuing a specific notice to the Trust inviting it to exercise its statutory preferential right to redevelop the land. The Trust challenged the acquisition before the High Court, which quashed the proceedings, a decision now appealed by the society, the developer, and the SRA before the Supreme Court.
Procedural History:
The procedural history began when the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) declared the subject land a Slum Rehabilitation Area in December 2020. The Church Trust challenged this declaration by filing a statutory appeal before the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC), which remained pending. Concurrently, the SRA initiated land acquisition proceedings against the Trust. Anticipating irreversible action, the Trust filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, which was later amended to challenge the SRA’s subsequent order recommending acquisition to the state government. The High Court, in its impugned judgment of June 2024, allowed the petition and quashed the acquisition proceedings. This led to the instant appeals before the Supreme Court by the housing society, the developer, and the SRA, arising from special leave petitions, which were consolidated and ultimately dismissed, upholding the High Court’s decision.
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Court Observation:
The Court observed that the landowner possesses a preferential right to redevelop a Slum Rehabilitation Area, a right not diluted by the 2018 Amendment to the Slum Acts Act. It held that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) is mandatorily required to issue a specific notice-cum-invitation to the landowner under Section 13 to submit a redevelopment scheme before any acquisition under Section 14 can be initiated. The notice provided under Section 3C for declaring an area cannot substitute this specific invitation. The Court found that the SRA’s failure to issue this notice and its subsequent actions, which displayed a clear bias towards the private developer, vitiated the entire acquisition process. The conduct of the SRA and the private appellants was strongly condemned as being colourable, motivated by bad faith, and an attempt to orchestrate a land grab under the guise of slum rehabilitation.
Final Decision & Judgement:
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and upheld the High Court’s judgement. It declared the land acquisition proceedings initiated by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) as illegal and void, as they were commenced without first issuing a mandatory notice to the landowner inviting them to exercise their preferential right to redevelop the site. The Court granted liberty to the Church Trust to submit a Slum Rehabilitation Scheme for the subject land within 120 days, which the SRA is directed to process expeditiously. The Trust is bound by the enhanced benefits it had previously offered to the slum dwellers. All pending applications were disposed of accordingly.
Case Details:
Case Title: Saldanha Real Estate Private Limited vs. Bishop John Rodrigues and others Citation: 2025 INSC 1016 Civil Appeal No.: (Arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 15454 / 2024) Date of Judgement: August 22, 2025 Judges/Justice Name: Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan
Download The Judgement Here