HC directs action on Sanjay Gandhi National Park slum rehabilitation amid contempt plea

We cannot allow SGNP to slip away from Mumbai city. We just cannot allow it,” said the bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar

Swati Deshpande | Jan 9, 2025, 22:26 IST

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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court directed the state to file its reply on what steps it took to ensure the slums of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) prior to Jan 1, 1995, are removed and rehabilitated, despite the first order to do so being passed 27 years ago. The state said a high-powered meeting held on Jan 7 selected a 90-acre plot for the rehabilitation.

“We cannot allow SGNP to slip away from Mumbai city. We just cannot allow it,” said the bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar while hearing a contempt plea over non-compliance with a 1995 order of the HC in an original PIL against encroachment in the city’s green lung. The issue is urgent, said the CJ, questioning what would happen if encroachment reaches the two lakes in the park that supply water to Mumbai.

Senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas, for Conservation Action Trust (CAT) headed by environmentalist Debi Goenka, who filed the contempt petition, said the 90 acres was in an eco-sensitive zone. He said such land could not be used unless conditions in a zonal master plan are complied with and questioned if such a master plan existed.

Advocate General Birendra Saraf submitted that the land on which the building to rehabilitate the eligible persons is to be constructed will be transferred to Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA), which will also be made a special planning authority for that area. MHADA will then invite tenders for construction. The idea is to have a single authority to expedite the development.

To Dwarkadas’ contention of construction being impermissible in an eco-sensitive zone, Saraf submitted that construction activity is permitted, though regulated, under the notification.

The HC grilled the govt over its “laxity” and said the state appeared to lack both “will and resolve” to rid the park of its encroachment. Dwarkadas said the datum line for eligibility of slum rehabilitation extended from January 1, 1995, to 2000 and then 2011, for “vote bank politics” requiring more land to rehabilitate. He said the 1995 orders also required fencing of the park border, which too has yet to be done, 27 years on.

“We have been very liberal considering the enormity of the task, but it cannot be allowed to go on like this since 1997…what can be more urgent than this…we will not allow SGNP to be taken away from the city.”