Mumbai: Bombay high court on Saturday dismissed a petition filed by Dharavi Koli Jamat Trust, which sought proper demarcation of the traditional Koli land by a fisheries department survey before proceeding with any redevelopment of nearly 50-acre plot in Dharavi.The HC division bench of Justices M S Karnik and S M Modak said a 2016 notification issued by the state has attained finality, and request for a remapping cannot be accepted as it was too late. The HC order paves the way for the ambitious Dharavi Redevelopment Plan to proceed.The HC dismissed the plea for lacking merit but granted liberty to the Koli Trust to pursue with their representation made to the state govt over land record survey.The grievance of the petitioner was over the “inaction and inordinate delay of about 15 years” by the revenue and forest department and the urban development department of the state of Maharashtra in ascertaining, determining, demarcating and finalising the outer boundary of Dharavi Koliwada. The demand to wait for fisheries survey is in the teeth of the exercise undertaken by the state and the SRA, the HC held after hearing senior counsel Ravi Kadam for the project implementation special purpose vehicle (SPV), Navbharat Mega Developers Private Ltd, and Milind More, additional GP for the state.Koli Trust’s counsel Ravi Gadakar submitted that what the petitioner wants is only a finalisation of the demarcation of the outer boundaries of Koliwada traditionally used for fishing and allied activities, in terms of exercise undertaken by the fisheries and city survey department, and till this exercise of identifying the boundaries is complete, no development be undertaken on this portion admeasuring 2,00,830 square metres.The HC, though, said, “We are afraid that it is too late in the day to canvass such a submission.”“With the passage of time and the manner in which Dharavi became a cluster of slums, it is not now open for the petitioner to claim exclusive rights for fishing and allied activities on the land merely on the basis that the survey by fisheries and city survey office is not finalised or on the ground that in the past these lands were traditionally used for fishing and other allied activities,” the HC observed.
