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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 19, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court Thursday upheld the Maharashtra government's 2022 regulation for Greater Mumbai that permitted open spaces exceeding 500 square metres to be used for slum redevelopment schemes, subject to the condition that at least 35% of the area is kept vacant and serves as park, garden, and playground. 

 

However, the top court asked the state government to undertake a comprehensive policy review of the 2022 regulation within a period of 24 months. The review should include a fieldwise environmental and urban health impact assessment, stakeholder consultations including residents associations and urban planners, and evaluation of whether the 35:65 ratio serves the goals of sustainable development, said the court. If necessary, the state will frame revised regulations ensuring a higher retention of open space, enhanced civic safeguards, and exclusion of fresh encroachments from rehabilitation benefits, the court added.

 

"Our decision should not be read as giving a free hand to the state to reduce open spaces in the city," said a bench of Justices Amit Borkar and Somasekhar Sundaresan. State and local planning bodies must take concrete steps to improve the per capita open space availability, especially in areas where it is dangerously low, the court said. These steps must include identifying and purchasing private lands that can be converted into gardens or parks, turning unused no-development zone areas or buffer lands into recreation zones where environmentally suitable, and strictly enforcing open space provisions in all layouts, residential or commercial, the court said.

 

"Preserving what remains is not enough. The city needs new and better open spaces for its growing population," it court. The bench made it clear that its decision was based on the present structure and implementation of the 2022 regulation. If future developments such as ground-level data, environmental reports, or public grievances show that the 35% open space is not enough, the state will be bound to revisit the policy, the court said. The state may then consider increasing the minimum open space or introducing stricter controls on the size and number of houses or floors allowed under such projects, it said.

 

"Our approval of the regulation is based on the balance currently offered between public space and housing needs. That balance must remain flexible and sensitive to future challenges. It cannot be static. The welfare of the people must always be the guiding principle," the court said. The bench also issued directions to ensure preservation and protection of lands reserved as open spaces in the sanctioned development plan of Mumbai. 

 

The high court was hearing a petition by NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal, challenging the consistent use of public open spaces reserved for recreational purposes, for the purpose of implementing slum rehabilitation schemes. The 2022 regulation, in effect, legalises the diversion of up to 65% of the land from its reserved public use for the purpose of construction, significantly diluting the purpose of reservation and denuding the city of its much-needed green and open spaces, the petitioner had said. This is against the "letter and spirit" of sustainable development and the "public trust doctrine", which requires that public assets such as parks and open spaces be preserved for collective enjoyment of the community, and not be sacrificed to accommodate encroachments or private development, even under the banner of welfare schemes, the petitioner said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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