The Supreme Court today rejected all objections to the sale and development of the land of sick NTC textile mills, releasing at least 150 acres of land in the heart of Mumbai.It allowed the appeals of the NTC and several private mills against the Bombay High Court judgment, which had stalled the sale and development of the land belonging to the sick mills.In another major victory for the mills, the Supreme Court clarified that the one-third division of mill land applied to the existing vacant spaces and not to the entire mill land. As a result, now only one-third of the existing vacant spaces of the mills have to be surrendered for green belts. The built-up area has been excluded from the one-third rule.The Supreme Court further ruled that the sale of surplus land of the mills was not contrary to the BIFR scheme as held by the High Court.The High Court had quashed the development plan, saying that it violated the rule of sharing the open land for commercial exploitation and low-cost housing. This view was overruled by the Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice S B Sinha and Justice P P Naolekar.The court stated that the changes made in the rules for the development of the mill lands were constitutionally valid. The Bombay Environment Action Group, which moved the writ petition in the High Court, had alleged that the development control rules were amended by the Maharashtra government to suit the property developers.In the 200-page judgment, the Supreme Court observed that the environmental aspect and sustainable development must go together.Earlier, the Supreme Court had passed interim orders allowing thedevelopment projects to go ahead after getting the necessary sanctions from the appropriate authorities and at their own risk.Nearly 60 textile mills, which have virtually closed down since theprolonged strike two decades ago, own some 600 acres in the heart of the metropolis. The owners were selling the surplus land and paying the workers' wages. The builders who bought part of the land from the owners were raising multi-storyed residential complexes, which have been handed over to buyers in many cases.
