November 06, 2025: The Bombay High Court has cleared the long-pending Irani Chawl redevelopment project in Prabhadevi, directing 15 tenants who resisted eviction to vacate their premises within four weeks. The court noted that the petitioners “do not have superior rights over others,” and highlighted that a new rehabilitation building is ready for occupation.
The petitioners — residents of Irani Chawl, a 66-year-old non-cessed building — had approached the High Court last year, contesting an eviction order issued by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) in September 2024. The chawl, along with an adjoining cessed structure, had been declared dilapidated and earmarked for redevelopment.
Out of 62 tenants, 47 had already vacated and accepted their new permanent accommodation. The remaining 15 refused to move, claiming entitlement to larger flats than those allotted. Advocate Uday Bobde, representing the tenants, argued that his clients were being given units 45 sq. ft. smaller than the flats allotted to tenants of the adjacent cessed building. “The petitioners are not agreeable to accept such tenements,” he said.
Mhada’s counsel, Advocate P.G. Lad, contended that the petitioners were unfairly delaying the project and that “a minority cannot take a non-cooperative position to bring the entire project to a standstill.”
A division bench of Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe sided with Mhada, ruling that the tenants’ demand for bigger homes had no legal basis. “Unless rights regarding the entitlement of the petitioners to a tenement of bigger flats are recognised under law or any statutory provision, they cannot assert such a plea,” the bench observed.
Calling the objections “mischievous and untenable,” the court rejected the petition, upheld Mhada’s eviction notice, and affirmed that under DCR Regulation 33(7)(3), a minimum 300 sq. ft. flat fulfills the tenants’ entitlement.
Source: Hindustan Times
