Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Thursday paved the way for the cluster redevelopment of the city’s two biggest MHADA layouts in Bandra Reclamation and Adarsh Nagar in Worli.
The court dismissed a bunch of petitions challenging the Maharashtra government and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s decision for the redevelopment and the tender process initiated for appointing a Construction and Development Agency.
A bench of Justices M S Karnik and S M Modak, in its judgment, said cluster redevelopment was a feasible way of developing the city in a planned and inclusive manner.
“The city of Mumbai has to grow and keep pace with the changing times, catering to the needs of flourishing markets and economic opportunities,” it said.
The decisions of the state government cannot be said to be arbitrary or irrational, the HC observed while dismissing the pleas.
The bench noted that the Adarsh Nagar layout involving approximately 34.33 acres of land in Worli and Bandra Reclamation layout involving approximately 98.27 acres of land in Bandra comprise several old buildings developed decades ago.
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The state government has taken a policy decision that these layouts should be redeveloped in an integrated and planned manner instead of fragmented and piecemeal redevelopment.
Integrated redevelopment ensures proper infrastructure planning, open spaces, internal roads, parking, amenities, drainage, water supply and coordinated development of the entire layout, the court said.
The bench in its order noted that the choice as to whether the redevelopment is to be carried out independently or in an integrated manner is a planning and policy decision vested with the state government and MHADA.
The bench remarked that courts ought not to interfere with policy decisions of the government unless the said decision is patently arbitrary or not in larger public interest.
The government should be free to take policy decisions or to decide priorities and it is better left to the wisdom of the State, which is well advised by the bureaucrats, and its other officers, who possess an expertise in taking policy decisions, HC said.
“In the areas of commerce involving financial decisions, a greater latitude is available to the executive, and the court shall not sit in judgment over the wisdom of the policy of the legislature or the executive,” it said.
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The state, through Government Resolutions (GRs) dated April 25 and December 15, 2025, had framed a policy to undertake integrated or cluster redevelopment of MHADA layouts of 20 acres or more in the city and its suburban areas.
The policy provides for redevelopment of the two layouts through a single private construction and development agency instead of multiple housing societies redeveloping their structures separately.
The government, through MHADA, had between 1950 and 1960 constructed 56 colonies for affordable housing for those from Middle and Lower Income Groups in Adarsh Nagar and Bandra Reclamation. These colonies now comprise 5000 housing societies, some of whose structures have become dilapidated.
Some of the societies in the plea in HC argued that they were being forced to be part of the cluster development, thereby taking away their independent redevelopment rights.
They argued that residents presently living in sea-facing buildings at Adarsh Nagar could be rehabilitated to any other location as part of the cluster redevelopment and would be deprived of their existing area.
