MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday halted the construction of a transit camp for a major slum redevelopment project in Worli. The court directed the chief executive officer of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to consider suspending two engineers for allegedly suppressing vital objections from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the “illegal construction” on the land which was reserved for a sewage treatment plant.
A division bench of justices GS Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe said that the court had serious doubts as to whether these officers had done their duties as public servants, adding that there appeared a “systematic design” to benefit the developer quite intentionally.
The case stems from a redevelopment project of the Worli Urban Development Project LLP on municipal land to rehabilitate people from the Jeejamata Cooperative Housing Society (CHS), Shree Vivekananda Nagar CHS, Veer Jeejamata Nagar CHS, and Mata Ramabai Nagar CHS.
The judges noted that in December 2024, the BMC’s chief engineer (development plan) had written a letter to the SRA, objecting to the construction of transit buildings on the land reserved for the Worli Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). The letter highlighted that the compound wall between the slum rehabilitation project and the reserved land was demolished and added that the developer might encroach upon the STP land where piling work had already begun.
The BMC later wrote another letter in June 2025 to the SRA deputy chief engineer, requesting them to demarcate the boundaries of the two plots. In its letter, the BMC insisted that the developer handover the vacant part of the reserved land to the corporation at the earliest.
Despite the objections, the SRA in April 2025 allowed the developer to construct seven transit buildings. The issue escalated when on December 26 2025, a stop work notice was issued to the developer by the SRA on the ground that the construction of the rehabilitation building was undertaken illegally. This prompted the developer to approach the high court.
Noting the “disturbing facts” of the case, the court was shocked seeing the “complete suppression of vital communications” issued by the BMC, stating that “things are certainly getting murkier in the proceedings” as it did not find any response by the SRA to the BMC’s letters.
Stating that the involved SRA officials may have tried to favour the developer, the bench remarked that the stop work notice issued by the SRA later was in fact “an eye wash and only worth the paper”. The court added that the SRA had granted the permissions regarding the construction without demarcating the land or addressing the BMC’s objections.
The bench noted that such transit camps continue to exist for years since they would always be occupied by slum dwellers even after the building’s current residents are rehabilitated. “Till such a large slum project is complete, the modus operandi of the officials in league with the developer appears to be clear to deprive the BMC of the public reservation of the land for the expansion of the STP plant”, the court observed.
Accordingly, the court ordered all constructions undertaken by the developer to be stopped immediately and directed that no further construction be taken up till further orders. The court also directed the authorities to remove the partly constructed transit camp and ordered the SRA to clear out building 1 as fast as possible.
Additionally, it directed the state government to clarify within 10 days whether it was legal for the housing department to reduce the 27,964.04 sq.m initially demarcated for the expansion of the STP plant to 17756.40 sq.m.