JUDGMENT:

PRELUDE

1. This is a case of a sizable chunk of State Government’s land, abutting the sea situated at Mahim within the Mahim Bay at Mumbai, occupied by slums. The Government however is nowhere in the scene, either to remove the slums or to rehabilitate the slum dwellers. Eventually the slum dwellers stepping into the shoes of their sentinel, decided to redevelop this land by appointing a developer in 2006. Thereafter, it has been rounds and rounds of litigation before different forums and twice before this Court. The reason being obvious, there being two groups of slum dwellers and two rival developers, having strong commercial interest considering the nature of the land and probably its proximity to the sea. The Government as also the different authorities under it, in the scheme of things, seem to be silent spectators, to the happenings between the slum dwellers and different developers. It is a sorry state of affairs for the slum dwellers, when their genuine interest stand superseded by extraneous interest.

It, however, needs to be acknowledged that the ingenuity of the parties and prolixity has sprouted some legal issues, a legal appetite at the bar and surely in the cir