Encroaching slum dwellers demand free housing but salaried persons get no such relief: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court recently took an unfavourable view of a plea by slum dwellers who demanded free alternative housing citing the fact that they were being evicted from their present dwellings raised on encroached land [Vaibhavi SRA CHS Ltd v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.]. .No such relief is available to even salaried employees working in the city who may have their own financial burdens, the Court pointed out. "They (slum dwellers before the court) are, we are told, in a position to make these demands and it does not matter — and should not matter — to anyone, even a court of equity that there is no such provision made for salaried persons working in the city (and that includes salaried employees of the High Court and government). It is these salaried employees who routinely draw on whatever sources they have including their provident funds and other savings and who have to pay enormous amounts towards the EMI in loan repayments. Nobody gives them a free house. Nobody gives them transit rent or any form of financial relief," the Court's November 10 order stated. .A division bench of Justices GS Patel and Kamal Khata made the observation on a plea by the Vaibhavi SRA Co-operative Housing Society, the members of which were being evicted for a land development project. The housing society urged the Court to cancel the appointment of the project developer, apart from seeking reliefs such as alternative housing and transit rent. .Senior advocate Milind Sathe and advocate Abhinav Chandrachud appeared for the petitioner-society and argued that the land's residents had not been paid transit rent from September 2021 and that the amount due in arrears was over ₹10 crore.Advocate Simil Purohit appeared for the developer and submitted that the builder would pay the transit rent due until December 2023. However, he added that this would be subject to the society agreeing to the plans proposed by developers..The High Court noted that the petitioner-society had earlier objected to continuing with the developer and the plans it had proposed.The Court was also surprised at the various demands raised by the society members including demands to decide the location and physical set up of the rehabilitation units. "We have here the society that has apparently decided not only that it must get large amounts as transit rent, and this must be paid even to those who deliberately delayed the project, but to the quite fantastical extent of now saying that it is the slum society that will decide the location, siting and even the physical built form of the rehab units. There is such a thing as going too far. We do not believe that these societies have this spectrum of rights," the Court remarked..The matter will be heard next in January 2024..[Read order]