HC slams Hiranandani; halts Powai township plans

Dealing a blow to Mumbai-based realty company Hiranandani Developers, the Bombay high court on Wednesday restrained it from carrying out any further development on the land in Powai that the government had given them.

The tripartite agreement between the developer, the state government, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) stipulated that Hiranandani must use a large part of the land to build affordable housing.

Instead, the developer has ignored the affordable housing part and proceeded to build large luxury apartments, the court observed, agreeing with the petitioners.

A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Roshan Dalvi observed after delivering their 30-page judgement that they were issuing directives for corrective steps instead of punitive action against the developer and government officials.

At the same time, the court granted liberty to the petitioners ''to take up the issue of corruption in a criminal prosecution against any errant public officers and the developer''.

The court passed its verdict after hearing public interest litigations filed by a group of activists, including Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar, which accused Hiranandani Developers of turning a project for affordable housing into an upmarket scheme.