The Bombay High Court has issued a restraining order barring the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and a private real estate developer from executing any rehabilitation projects on approximately 3.7 acres of land allocated for the University of Mumbai’s (MU) Kalina campus expansion.
The judicial order was passed by a division bench comprising Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Arif Doctor, who stated that the land could not be repurposed for slum rehabilitation merely because the government had failed to fulfil its responsibility of removing encroachments and transferring the land to the university. The court directed Track Estates Private Limited, the appointed developer, to refrain from acting on the Letter of Intent previously granted by the SRA in June 2022.
According to the petition filed by MU, the university had entered into an agreement with the Maharashtra government in 1962. This was followed by land acquisition in Kalina in 1974 for the institution’s anticipated expansion. Although a sanad or land allotment letter had been issued in 1987, the university’s name was never updated in the official revenue records, creating a legal void that was later exploited.
Over the years, encroachments appeared on the property, and two housing societies—Galaxy Heights and Yogiraj Asram—were formed by slum residents occupying the land. These societies entered into a development agreement with Track Estates, and the SRA subsequently issued a Letter of Intent naming the firm as the official developer. MU argued that the original sanad made no provision for the land to be used for slum rehabilitation. Furthermore, it was submitted that the land had been transferred illegally between private entities without proper authorization. In October 2023, the tehsildar of Andheri directed that Track Estates be removed from the land records. Later, in February 2024, the SRA’s Apex Grievance Redressal Committee also stayed the project, citing a lack of clarity regarding legal ownership of the land.
The court's intervention has brought all development activity to a halt, pending resolution of the ownership dispute. The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 11. The case underscores long-standing challenges in urban land governance, including bureaucratic lapses, title irregularities, and the risks of unauthorized development on disputed public land.