The court has asked MHADA and the State housing department to file their replies to the petition within a week. "Some policy will have to be framed to recover the area," the Bench said.
"What steps is MHADA going to adopt to recover the surplus area which is due to it from developers who have developed Cess buildings in Mumbai. It is a powerful authority, it cannot be so helpless," the Bombay High Court noted on Friday.
A division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and N W Sambre issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by activist Kamlakar Shenoy, who has claimed that there has been a wrongful loss of around Rs 14,000 crore due to willful and deliberate inaction of MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) officials for not taking back around 30 lakh square feet saleable area.
As per rules, MHADA is eligible to get a certain percentage of saleable area from developers, who redevelop cess buildings under rule 33 (7) of the Development Control Rules. Most Cess buildings are located in South Mumbai.
The court has asked MHADA and the State housing department to file their replies to the petition within a week. "Some policy will have to be framed to recover the area," the Bench said.
"It cannot be that only First Information reports are filed against defaulting developers. In our country, you know the process takes a long time. Will till then the eligible candidates be deprived of their right?"
The court also went through a reply filed by the Anti Corruption Bureau, which states that 457 projects are approved under the rules, of which surplus area to be recovered is 198,646.45 sqmt and compensation is Rs 37.54 crore.
However, majority of the promised area is around 141803.29 sqmt, from 260 ongoing or stalled projects. The surplus amount will only be given after the projects are completed.
MHADA has initiated prosecution against 34 developers and final reports have been filed against them in 26 cases. Further, civil proceedings against 29 developers have been initiated and MHADA has recovered 6376.12 sqmt from redeveloped area and Rs 40.47 crore as penalty. Six developers, have expressed their intention to settle their dues with MHADA and are in the process of handing over promised area.
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