Anjuman E Shiate Ali & Anr. v. Gulmohar Area Societies Welfare Group & Ors.
Background
In 1967, the Anjuman Trust had obtained a sanctioned layout for a large plot of land in the JVPD Scheme, Mumbai, allotted to it for the Dawoodi Bohra Community, which, as required by planning rules, set aside two sub-plots as open garden space. Decades later, after a 1999 development plan for the wider area showed the same land as "residential," the Trust tried to use these two garden plots for construction. Local residents, an architect, a filmmaker and an NGO filed public interest litigation to stop this, and the Bombay High Court ruled in their favour, holding the plots had to remain open space.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision, holding that open spaces reserved in an approved layout cannot later be freed up for construction merely because a subsequent, broader development plan generally zoned the surrounding area as residential: the development plan did not account for the specific internal layout already sanctioned in 1967. Having taken the benefit of the approved layout to build on 59 of 61 sub-plots, the Trust could not then claim the two garden plots set aside under that very same layout were available for construction. The appeals were dismissed.
Lesson Learnt
Land set aside as mandatory open space or garden in an approved layout stays protected even decades later, and a later, broader zoning/development plan cannot be used as a backdoor to build over it, especially by the same party that benefited from the original layout approval.