Mumbai: After a 30-year stint in Mumbai Police, Sayajirao Phadtare was forced to move his family to Satara in 2015 as he had no place to call his own in the city. After participating in the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) lottery in 1994, Phadtare, now 70, won a plot in Malvani, Malad, but has been fighting with 299 others for over 30 years to claim the spot.
Despite the Supreme Court (SC) nod, 300 families, who were allotted plots 32 years ago, are yet to get permission to build their houses, allegedly due to the arbitrariness of MHADA officials, who, they say, are causing the delay by citing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
“We will approach the Supreme Court again next week with a petition to take action against the concerned MHADA officials for contempt of court,” said Arjun Desai, secretary of one of the seven societies of plot holders. Desai, who won a 21 square meter plot, said, “I was 22 years old when I won the lottery. I was waiting to get a plot to get married but after a long wait, I had to buy a flat in Gorai as I could not postpone my marriage.”
The plot plan in Malvani was drawn up by the Housing Authority under the World Bank-assisted Bombay Urban Development Project (BUDP) project in 1991, before it started selling self-contained housing. Under the scheme individuals were allotted plots ranging from 21 to 40 square meters to build self-contained houses, mirroring the housing authority’s practice before moving into multi-storey buildings. Under this scheme, the land layout was divided into seven zones, each managed by its own housing society.
lottery
In October 1994, MHADA invited applications for allotment of plots under the lottery system, and in 1995 “lucky” plot owners were given possession letters with the promise that they would get possession of the plots in the developed layout the following year.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which had initially said that the plots were allotted after the implementation of CRZ rules on February 19, 1991 and hence CRZ restrictions were applicable to them, in November 2005, based on information provided by MHADA, approved using the plots for housing purposes. But the Housing Authority still did not give possession of the plots to the allottees.
court battle
After a long wait, in 2011, members of all the seven proposed societies approached the Bombay High Court (HC) against MHADA. The court ruled in their favor in 2015 and allowed them to build their houses on the allotted plots. However, MHADA intervened and quashed the order in 2017, contending before the HC that the plots fell within the 50-metre mangrove buffer zone and hence no permission could be granted for construction on the land. After this, the HC asked MHADA not to give re-possession licenses to the allottees.
In 2022, the beneficiaries moved the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the plot allottees on February 25, 2025, noting that the layout was approved between 1987 and 1994, and that work on the roads and infrastructure around it had been completed years earlier. The top court had emphasized that development work like leveling the land, plotting and construction of internal roads on these plots had been done much before the HC order.
Hindustan Times has copies of the HC and SC orders.
However, despite the Supreme Court order, 300 beneficiaries of MHADA plots are yet to get possession of the land parcels. “Now, whenever we approach MHADA, officials defer the matter by sending us to its legal department. My file has gone to the legal department at least three times in the last one year,” said Desai.
“I had to come to Mumbai from Satara to fight for my rights. If MHADA does not release the plots immediately, we will file a contempt petition for violating the Supreme Court guidelines,” Phadtare said.
HT attempted to contact MHADA Vice President and CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal and Mumbai Board Chief Officer Milind Borikar to hear their stand on the matter, but did not receive any response.
