India, Sept. 15 -- The Bombay High Court last week directed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to file an affidavit explaining how privately-owned land could be declared as a slum under the Slum Rehabilitation Act, merely on the ground that the adjoining land has been declared as a slum. It reprimanded the SRA after a subordinate officer submitted the affidavit in the CEO's place.

A division bench of justice G S Kulkarni and justice Manjusha Deshpande was hearing a plea by Ramesh Singh, a landowner in Malad, who claimed that he kept receiving notices from the SRA unilaterally declaring his land as a slum.

Singh's plea contested a November 2024 notice issued under Section 13(2) of the Maharashtra...