MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed two public interest litigations (PILs) that sought to bar the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) from commercially developing 24 acres of reclaimed land at Bandra. The plot was previously part of land given to the MSRDC for construction of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne held that the restrictions imposed in the 1999 and 2000 environmental clearances for the Bandra–Worli Sea Link project, prohibiting residential or commercial use of reclaimed land, no longer apply because the land today lies outside the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) under the 2019 framework.
The ruling clears the way for MSRDC and its private partner, Adani Properties, to move forward with plans to develop the plot, which the petitioners had demanded be preserved as a “green lung” for Mumbai.
The two petitions were filed by activist Zoru Bhathena and the Bandra Reclamation Area Volunteers Organization (BRAVO), a citizens’ collective. Both argued that the reclaimed land was made available only on condition that it would never be commercially exploited, and that this promise continued to bind the MSRDC irrespective of later CRZ notifications.
They relied heavily on Condition (viii) of the April 2000 clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which had raised the allowable reclamation area to 27 hectares but simultaneously mandated that “no portion of the reclaimed area should be used for residential/commercial purposes”.
The court observed that the question central to the matter was whether restrictive conditions imposed while granting CRZ clearance for reclamation continue to apply even when the reclaimed land subsequently falls outside the CRZ area under the current regulatory regime. And whether MSRDC, having obtained permission on the assurance that reclaimed land would not be developed, can rely on new CRZ rules to do precisely that.
Dismissing both PILs, the court concluded that restrictions in the 1999 and 2000 clearances were linked to the CRZ regime then in force. With subsequent notifications and Coastal Zone Management Plans moving the land outside the CRZ, those restrictions no longer apply.
The 2025 clearance from the MoEF further validated MSRDC’s plans. Doctrines such as the public trust doctrine and non-regression doctrine could not override express statutory frameworks, the court observed.
Accordingly, the court held there was no legal bar on MSRDC proceeding with commercial development of the Bandra reclamation plot.
Bhathena, however, warned that the decision would deprive Mumbai, a city with just 1.1 square metres of open space per person against the recommended 10 square metres, of yet another vital public resource.
Reacting to Tuesday’s dismissal, Bhathena said, “Today, the Bombay High Court has dismissed our challenge to the commercial development of land reclaimed by MSRDC for the Bandra Worli Sea Link, at Bandra Reclamation. Land reclaimed from the sea on the condition to provide our city with green open spaces. We shall be challenging this dismissal in the Supreme Court. But, it is just an indicator of the future of Mumbai city. And, most likely why BMC hasn’t yet greened the reclaimed Coastal Road. They are probably waiting to commercially exploit that too.”
