MUMBAI: Coming to the aid of a 76-year-old former mill worker, the Bombay high court quashed a 2019 order of the Mumbai Housing Board under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) which cancelled his allotment to a residential unit meant for erstwhile mill workers because he could not pay the initial 10% amount on time.
The rehabilitation project was in Lower Parel, at the Prakash Cotton Mill compound, and the high court was critical of the state for not having considered the hardship suffered by the former senior citizen mill worker and many others like him.
Directing that he be handed the flat, Justice Madhav Jamdar underscored how Development Control Regulation (DCR) 58 was amended in 2001 to provide residential premises for erstwhile mill workers on mill lands.
Justice Jamdar said it was “well known” that these provisions of the DCR 1991 and DCPR 2034 were made for the welfare of the mill workers who suffered in the 1982 strike of textile mills, where many lost their jobs and their service dues were also not paid. Justice Jamdar said, “Thus, these provisions are in the form of welfare policies.”
The high court directed that authorities who implement welfare legislation or schemes to safeguard the interest of marginalised people shall adopt a pragmatic approach. “The state and Mhada must be flexible.”
Shamrav Kamble filed a petition in 2022 to challenge Mhada’s cancellation of his allotment and also its rejection of his request for reasonable time to pay. Mhada said no extension was permissible since he was unable to pay the initial Rs 95,000 as 10% of the final price on time.
The former mill worker was allotted a flat in a lottery conducted in May 2016 for mill workers but had to shift to Kolhapur as his allotment was cancelled for failing to pay Rs 9.5 lakh under a provisional letter in May 2018.
In Aug, the high court passed interim orders to enable him to deposit the full amount with Mhada, which he did, and possession was handed over to him immediately, subject to the final order of the court in his petition.
Last month, in its final judgment, the high court said it was obligatory for mill land owners to rehabilitate the mill workers free of cost and also build and hand over flats meant for mill workers to Mhada.
The new Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034—the town plan for the city—also provides under regulation 35 for the development and redevelopment of cotton textile mill lands and to provide former mill workers housed there with new homes on the same premises.
The law also provides for a lottery system for other mill workers to get homes from the stock of flats to be given by the mill owner to Mhada under the comprehensive mill lands redevelopment scheme.
The high court said a former mill worker getting premises valued at over Rs 1 crore was unable to even gather Rs 95,000 as 10% of the final price within 45 days as required, clearly showing his “precarious financial condition”. He had to relocate to a remote area of Kolhapur, observed the high court.
Justice Jamdar observed that the approach of state authorities in implementing the salutary provisions meant to rehabilitate mill workers “is required to be liberal, pragmatic, and to safeguard the interest of the mill workers and to ensure their rehabilitation”.
